The Bell Tolls
by Nenagh24
Summary: When Hinata dreamt of weddings, she saw the large party, her family happily giving her away, Naruto in an elegant tuxedo. She did not see a drunken escapade after a mission with Kiba. But what happens in the Land of Fire… Kiba/Hinata


**Disclaimer: **Naruto and all of its characters in no way belongs to me.

**Author's Note:**

This is a story of tuathafaerie, sister to Nenagh24 and being posted to that account because her own was hacked and the stories therein deleted. This is an indirect sequel to The Price. It is not necessary to read that story prior to this one, but you might just like them both. :)

Summary: [When Hinata dreamt of weddings, she saw the large party, her family happily giving her away, Naruto in an elegant tuxedo. She did not see a drunken escapade after a mission with Kiba. But what happens in the Land of Fire… Kiba/Hinata]

This took over six years to get down on paper. The plot had been done long before that. I am constantly amazed it's finished. The Lightning Strike, by Snow Patrol, finally got me to finish the last half of it. Look it up, it's good.

By the way, this is 60 pages. Get a snack before you start.

**The Bell Tolls**

_Tiny princess_

_in a white castle._

_Who will save_

_your heart?_

Tiny, amber bubbles floated up through a viscous sea behind glass only to pop as they reached the calm pond of the surface. Sitting with trepidation behind the long, wooden table, two wide, pale eyes watched their path as the drink murmured to itself with small, satisfied hisses. Slowly, the white noise faded into nothing and Hinata glanced over at the young man sitting beside her. "Are you s-sure? I-I mean, I think we're still on a mission..."

Beside her, the unflappable Sai merely shrugged, performing a quick jutsu before lifting up his own glass to sip at. "We're already back in the fire country and we've sent our report to the Hokage by bird. I doubt a person with Genma's experience would allow his team to stupidly drink while in danger." That he had just nullified all the alcohol in his own beverage by using a technique Sakura had taught him to burn out the poison went unmentioned. After all, it wasn't really his business what the rest of his team mates wanted to do.

Across from her, the senbon totting leader just grinned. "Enjoy yourself, hime. You worked hard enough the last week to have a little fun on Tsunade-baba's tab." At nearly an unwanted forty, his graying hair was hidden skillfully with a vibrant bandanna, but his voice still carried enough authority that Hinata was willing to revert back to her genin years and obey him without question. She gave a wavering smile back at him before taking a nervous gulp of the beer that had been poured for her.

"Man! Why the heck did I even come on this mission anyway?" Kiba grouched, one leg stretched into the aisle of the restaurant as he kicked back in his position diagonal from his common teammate. A healthy swig of alcohol found its way down his throat. "I did practically nothing the entire time." A few other patrons gave them all cursory glances, but the chatter of the room soon swelled up again to blend and meld their conversation into background noise once more. In a town frequented by ninjas returning to their home country and in need of some familiar sights, smells, and especially cuisine, they were nothing out of the ordinary.

"That's just what the assignment required," Genma replied easily, leaning back as well onto the small board that backed his cushion. "We can't all come from classy families like Hinata."

The dark haired girl fought down a blush as she ducked her head. Really, she wished people would not give her such deferential treatment just because she was a Hyuuga, and the heir at that. It made her even more embarrassed that she was not as good as Neji or Hanabi. Ducking her head away from the conversation, as both Genma and Akamaru vocalized their amusement at Kiba's expense, Hinata was surprised to realize that her glass had emptied. She quietly excused herself to Sai before reaching over him to lift the pitcher and refill her drink.

"Bah, this was a silly mission anyway!" Kiba huffed to himself, rolling his eyes as Genma only chuckled at him. "With all the spying Akamaru actually did, you didn't even need either of us along."

Their leader contradicted this statement with a smile back towards Hinata. "You were our backup. Hinata was the elegant young princess, Sai the artist she was bringing for the lord, and I was her bodyguard, but we had no one on the outside. We needed you there in case of emergency." He threw a wink across the table before purposefully patting the young man next to him on the head, forcing Kiba's chin almost to his plate. "You were just lucky everything went smoothly."

"Che." The Inuzuka clan member ducked out of the hold, throwing a vengeful look over his shoulder. "You mean _you_ were lucky that Hinata is actually a good actress." A thumb was hooked at both Genma and Sai. "I've never seen as crappy actors as you and paint boy, right Hinata?"

"O-oh!" The amber liquid sloshed over the rim of the mug and she had to work fast to mop it up, but Hinata managed to reply. "Yes, I suppose..." For lack of anything noncommittal to say, the shy young woman returned to the steady sips of beer in lieu of speech. It wasn't really that she had been acting either; her role just coincided with her introverted nature. She kind of wished that Genma would consider their dinner finished so that she could get back to her room. She didn't mind eating out with her friends, but she wasn't all that familiar with Sai or Genma and Kiba was in a poor mood. It would be far better if they went to bed early tonight so as to be able to return to the village refreshed.

Mentioned paint boy sent a generalized offended stare around the table. "While I appreciate your term of endearment-" Kiba's choke of dismay was firmly ignored here - "I would like to point out that Sakura-chan has told me that it is better to be genuine than a liar. Unless we are of course discussing your physical appearance."

Kiba growled in annoyance. "Your sucky acting could have _killed_ us!"

"I think you're exaggerating," Genma sighed, scratching at his head.

"Sorry," Hinata added, as she plucked up the pitcher for the second time, hands slightly more unsteady, and sloshed the liquid over the rim, "let me get you a napkin, Sai-kun."

"I fail to see what the purpose of our acting was in the first place," Sai commented loftily, concluding the three part answer to Kiba's outrage. "It unnecessarily complicated our mission."

"On that, at least, we agree!" the brunette man shot back, palm hitting the table with a ferociousness that had Akamaru cringing and folding back his ears. "And what do you think you're having Hinata do?"

Hinata glanced up, distracted from her efforts to daub a large handkerchief over the wet patch on Sai's shirt. She spotted bemused black eyes watching her from above and the angry expression from her long time teammate and instantly recoiled. "S-sorry! I-I just spilled some beer on S-sai-kun."

Across from her, Kiba instantly softened his expression and waved off her hesitance, his now familiar response to her flustered state. Instead, he began directing hand gestures at Sai, cloaking much of his movements behind his own cup.

"Your shinobi sign language is hideous. It'd be best to just speak up."

"Let's switch seats!" Kiba shouted back, ignoring the sudden dip in conversation around them and Genma's frown. Hinata's head ducked down even further, completely hidden against the darkness of the wall and her violet overcoat. If only they could just get back to the hotel! It was a miracle that none of the rest of her companions seemed bothered by the now curious attention. Either that or they were exhibitionists of the embarrassing variety, and by their lack of self-containment, Hinata wouldn't put it past any one of them. But of the three of them, Hinata felt the worse for Kiba, who could not help getting louder when he was upset.

"I fail to see the point," Sai replied. Kiba's fierce stare bit into his forehead. "But if you insist on the exercise..."

Swiftly, the brash young man ensured the changed seating arrangement, settling down next to Hinata with a relief that pulled his shoulders lower. "Let's make sure we're assigned to a different team next time," he said gruffly to his friend, lifting his hand automatically as Akamaru pushed under his palm again.

"Mmm," Hinata answered softly, halving her drink once more.

Genma shook his head in slight reprimand but let the comment slide. It was a specialized mission anyway and they were all selected based on specific criteria. They'd be back to their usual teams for the next mission. Instead, he changed the topic of conversation, focusing on the one member of his group that hadn't provoked a fight. "So, Hinata, are you looking forward to anything when we get back to Konoha? Maybe spending some time with your friends or going on a date with your boyfriend?"

"I'll see my friends," Hinata replied, giggling a bit as she set down her empty cup again. It felt as if something warm was sliding down her spine, and the girl pressed back restlessly against the wall trying to quell the tickle. "I-I promised to go shopping with them."

"So, no boyfriend then?" Genma continued with a friendly smile. "A pretty girl like you?"

Above the rim of his glass, Kiba scowled at the older man, but Hinata ignored it as she shook her head and then had to work hard to keep herself from getting dizzy. She knew in the back of her mind that her traditional teammates already knew the reason why she was conspicuously single and knew also that the Hyuuga clan had been applying pressure for an arranged marriage for their unwed heir and that Hinata was trying to avoid all conversation currently with her father. She understood as well and even further lost in the recesses of her common sense that she had absolutely no tolerance for alcohol – the day Neji had caught her catching the slightest buzz with Ino and Tenten was the day he had finally asserted familial rights as her eldest cousin and ordered her back to the compound with a twitching eye that underlined threats against a repeat performance – and that under no circumstances were embarrassing conversations and liqueur ever to be mixed, but for some reason her lips seemed to have disassociated themselves from her brain and she could not stop herself from replying.

"No, Naruto-kun never seems to notice that I l-like him. I even c-confessed a while back, but he never said anything about it." She had stumbled slightly, but Hinata thought with a healthy dose of realism that it was amazing she had gotten through the statement at all. The dark fear within her, that Naruto had not "forgotten" her confession but simply chose to treat it as platonic affection out of deference to her feelings, usually smothered all her words back into the depths of her heart. In her amazement and foggy congratulations for her new found confidence, she failed to notice the reactions of her companions.

Sai's uncontrolled snort of disbelief was reflected in Genma's quick raise of one eyebrow. "Naruto, I-will-be-seventh-hokage-in-your-face!-Naruto?" he checked reflexively. Sai just shook his head.

Kiba's drink came down with a thump. "Stop teasing her about it," he warned, an angry flush dusting his cheeks.

"I've liked him for almost twelve years," Hinata continued, unmindful of their comments. She blinked with surprise at her own daring and gave herself a mental pat on the back. Not even during the infamous girl talk between herself and Sakura, who had attempted to play matchmaker, had she ever managed to admit to her crush. This was some definite progress!

"To each his own," Sai said musingly. "I'm more surprised at your interest at all than at Naruto's lack of self-awareness."

Genma's chuckle drowned out the sound of Sai's quick grunt from Kiba's retaliatory kick. The senbon in his mouth rolled towards the other cheek as he rubbed his chin. "Why Naruto?"

"Well, he's very brave," the girl replied slowly, trying to bring her memories of the blond boy to the surface of her mind. His familiar face swam haltingly into focus.

"In a very idiotic way," Sai added rebelliously, eyes closely watching Kiba across the table and his hand draped defensively across his legs.

Hinata gave his opinion a placating nod. "S-sometimes he's a little silly. But Naruto-kun always sticks to what he thinks is right." A smile hovered on the outside of her lips as she thought about the young man she admired so much. Naruto always followed his own ninja way, no matter what anyone else said about him. If he thought, for example, that the division of a clan and family into servants and masters was wrong, then the rest of Konoha would just have to change. She supposed she liked his guts the best – though she had never actually looked inside of him. Sakura said they were kind of disgusting. Perhaps it was just best to like his figurative guts, but wouldn't that be more like his heart? "He's a good person," she concluded, trying to remember just what it was Genma had asked her in the first place.

Her team leader creased his forehead together in bewildered amusement. "That sounds more like a role model than love to me." His teeth clicked speculatively against the metal in his mouth. "And even if Naruto likes you back, you're gonna have some hell of a time convincing your family to allow the two of you to even date. Unless the kid actually does the impossible and manages to snatch hokage from granny."

White eyes blinked naively back. "Neji acknowledges Naruto-kun."

The rueful, muffled laughter Genma released in response was not encouraging. "Acknowledgment is several character strokes away from permission."

By this time, Kiba had managed to finish off the first pitcher of beer and set it aside for the waitress to refill. His eyes rolled at the conversation. "Hinata's too good for Naruto anyway."

"O-oh, not really, Kiba-ku-"

"Why is that?" Sai asked, the tenseness in his shoulders dissipating as Kiba's annoyed temperament dropped back into the gruff growl at the back of his throat. He seemed honestly interested in the answer and Hinata supposed he must have developed a camaraderie with the blond whirlwind by now.

Gesturing with a casual hand, Kiba let his response run on. "'Cause. Hinata's smarter, she's worked hard to get where she is now and she uses her power really well, she's got a good family, she's really nice, she gets really serious about her missions, she's-"

"I don't see how any of these traits are particularly superior to Naruto," the artist interrupted calmly. His eyes flicked briefly as Hinata thanked the waitress for the new pitcher and hurriedly filled her cup.

"That's because you're an idiot," Kiba shot back. Hinata watched him with a distant interest as he rolled his eyes and bit into one of the takoyaki he snagged from the center plate. There was a pleasant lethargy settling in her that blurred the details on even his well-known face, and she watched the tattoos mingle with the growing flush across his cheeks. "If you would just partner up with Hinata more often, you would know that she is obf... obvisss... clearly superior."

Sai smiled pleasantly at the pair across from him at the table. "Then I'll be by in two days to pick up Hinata to join the next mission I've been assigned."

"Like hell!" Kiba shouted. He didn't pay much attention to the response of his exclamation, but Hinata, though she had lost track of the other patrons, watched Genma suddenly frown at the irascible young man. "You'll not put your fucking hands on her! Get your own Hinata!"

"Kiba," their team leader interjected swiftly, "calm down. You're not making much sense. Perhaps we've had enough relaxing on Tsunade's bill after all." He was trying to put a swift veneer over the argument, calm his contentious group down enough to pay the bill and cart them all out of here, and honestly Hinata felt a bit sorry for him. It was like trying to put a paper fence up to pen a raging bull. Too little, too late.

But, in sympathy, she added her voice to his. "L-let's get back to the hotel..."

"My 'own Hinata'? I wasn't under the impression that she belonged to anybody. And I don't think slavery's quite legal in Konoha," Sai said blithely, the only hint that he was being vengeful the tilt of his chin as he countered Kiba's rash statements.

"You know what I mean!"

"No, I really don't." The painter's index finger came up to lightly tap his chin. "If she belongs to anyone, wouldn't it be the Hyuuga first, then Konoha, and then maybe Naruto?"

"Sai-kun," Hinata cautioned gently. If she could have, she just might have come up with a good, soothing statement here, but as it was her head was doing that steady dip and spin that told her either she was naturally gifted at dancing, or that she needed to get to bed and quickly because she was coming down with something. Or maybe both.

Kiba's expression was bordering on the murderous again. "We're teammates," he growled out, as if that should answer every complaint presented.

"You're not even related," Sai rebuked with accuracy.

And with this, even their senbon chewing leader knew the line had been crossed. "Inuzuka," Genma warned. But Kiba's dark eyes had already shot wide and he pushed to his feet as Akamaru began a deep rumble in his chest. Hinata thought for one tense, extended interval that he was actually going to start a fight with the still placid artist. Kiba's fists clenched in tight emotion and his face flushed all the colors between pallid white and burning red.

His voice when it emerged though bordered on the eerily sober. "Guess that'll have to change before you'll leave her alone, huh? You promise?"

Sai's equally serious gaze met the standing shinobi's before his lips twisted faintly upwards into a strangely innocent smile and he shrugged. Genma, who did not want to tip the balance into violence, remained still.

The expression that flashed across Kiba's face was a combination of male victory and foolhardy determination. Then he turned his attention to the girl beside him and all that was left was brash courage. "Well, Hinata, you wanna come with me and become family?"

"...alrig-" That was the only dazed response she got out before Kiba's hand found her wrist and tugged her swiftly but stumblingly to her feet. Her world darkened for an indeterminable moment and she thought, giddy with the strangeness of moving, that she might just have done the most embarrassing thing that evening and passed out in the center of the restaurant. But then Kiba's arm attached like a clamp around her waist and she clung to his white knuckled fingers even as he tucked her neatly against his side.

Genma's sharp words rushed past her hollow ears without conveying meaning. "Inuzuka, if you do anything rash tonight, I will be forced to report it to the Hokage."

The rumble that filled the chest next to her cheek mingled with Kiba's clipped response. "Don't worry. I'll do it myself!"

And then they were off, flying out of the restaurant and down the street, dodging passerby with the skill only ninjas could display. Or, Hinata thought morosely, Kiba was dodging people with the single-minded determination of a man with nothing to lose. Hinata's feet barely touched the ground as she was pulled along; ducking in and out of corridors to a destination she did not know. Her stomach was starting to protest wildly to this jerking, and it was all she could do just to clutch at Kiba's shirt and hope that she didn't decorate it with the dinner she had just finished.

"Where...?" Hinata managed to mumble out, closing her eyes against the dizzying blur of lights. Soft as the inquiry was, Kiba still heard her voice, and they paused briefly as he transferred Hinata to his back, wrapping her arms around his neck as he supported her legs.

"An important place," was the only reply. Hinata's head fell to rest on his shoulder as they took to the roofs and she knew he must be right. The sound of Akamaru's lonely howl meant that Kiba had left his faithful companion behind, and he only did that in the direst of emergencies. She dazedly watched the uneven brown hair that curled at the base of her teammate's neck and hoped that wherever it was they were going, she did not have to be fully cognizant when they arrived.

It was still several minutes after that that she realized Kiba had stopped moving. Blearily dragging her head up, Hinata let her eyes trace the dark outlines of a torii gate. They were at a Shinto shrine. Slowly, Kiba released her legs and she slid down his back to let her feet rest on the ground. This was his 'important place.' She knew it in the way his fingers shook and the rhythm of his heels trying to dig into the ground.

Carefully, deliberately, Hinata moved forward to stand abreast with her teammate against whatever threat he felt the gates possessed. "Should we go through?" she asked, uncertain even why she was standing here. But she trusted Kiba. He would not purposefully lead them into danger.

"Do you want to?" he questioned back in the smallest voice she had ever heard him use. Hinata's white eyes flew to his face in curiosity, but whether because of the night darkness or her own inability to focus, she could not make out his expression.

She was forced to reason it out and finally her innocent voice broke the quiet. "It would be rude not to pay our respects."

The statement broke Kiba's hesitance. With a swiftness that was uncanny, his hand found hers and they almost ran to the small fountain before the main building. Kiba doused her hands with water with a speed that brooked no argument, then lifted the dipper with a fresh supply to run over his own.

A loud cough startled his movements and the wooden dipper dropped out of his hands. The two shinobi looked up to find an elderly man standing at the top of a short flight of stairs, gazing down at them with an expression of consternation. Behind him, a large metal bell rose in silhouette.

"What are you doing here? The shrine closes at sundown. Please come back tomorrow." With a tut, he turned as if to walk away.

"We need to see you tonight!" Kiba called quickly, plunging his hands wrist deep into the running water hurriedly before sprinting up the stairs as he dried his fingers on his pants. "Tonight!"

Silver hair flashing faintly in the moonlight, the old priest looked back with a reprimand. "Praying is just as powerful during the day as it is at night. What is so important that it cannot wait until tomorrow?"

"We want to get married!"

Hinata blinked by the fountain and stared bemusedly up at her longtime friend, whose face was flushed with nerves and determination, but it was the priest who goggled at the pair of them, his eyes rapidly flying between the two faces before settling back on his own shrine. "Then you may definitely come back tomorrow. And bring your parents!"

"We cannot wait until tomorrow!" Kiba complained, quickly catching up and blocking the path back to the door. He did not touch the older man, but he planted himself firmly on the stone walkway. "It has to be tonight!"

"Will she have a child tomorrow?" the priest burst out impatiently. When Kiba only growled lowly, the old man shook his head with a click of his tongue and crossed his arms. "What is your name?"

The reply came promptly. "Inuzuka, Kiba. She's Hinata."

If possible, the priest's expression became even more severe. Knowledgeably, his gaze shot down to the small kunai hostler wrapped around the boy's leg. "Will you die tomorrow and want to ensure your marriage before, or will you die tonight without her beside you?" The hypothetical question was critical and scathing, but Kiba did not move nor reply. A wearied and unexpected sigh flowed between them. "The Inuzuka have raised a foolish son, but I will be the foolish priest who marries you. Get inside and I will go find Midori if she has not left." Cutting off the thanks he received with a curt gesture, the priest turned left to the smaller building that had light shining out from behind its curtained windows.

For the first time since their arrival, Hinata watched Kiba turn and meet her eyes. His expression slowly morphed into one of trepidation and sheepishness as he gingerly made his way back to her. "Ah, Hinata, I know it's really fast, but I really have been looking at you for a long time, and that bastard, Sai, made me angry, a-and ... but I should have explained more...?"

Hinata tried to move her mouth into a reassuring smile, could not feel her muscles properly, and gave up. "Married?" she tried asking and saw Kiba's face shutter slightly. She reached out impulsively to grasp his hand, wanting to comfort him, because she honestly didn't understand why he was so upset. Things had happened rather quickly in the last half hour and her head was still spinning from their dash to the shrine. She had only caught parts of what Kiba had said to the priest and none of it sounded too terrible. Marriage had stood out only because it had halted the conversation abruptly. Kiba had wanted it pretty badly and, now that Hinata thought about it, it was one of those things she needed as well. How nice of him to ask, she thought kindly as her fingers pressed into his, and wouldn't her family be surprised and delighted when they found she could handle this problem on her own? This _was_ an important place.

Kiba, staring fixedly at their joined hands, began speaking again. "Hinata," he started, his cheeks red and an unexpected emotional quaver in his voice, surely the effects of the beer that she had also drunk, "I really should have said something years ago. Hell, Shino made fun of me after every mission for my lack of guts. But you really are the most, most impors...imp... special person to me."

In front of him, Hinata smiled in a carefree manner that she had not known for years, smiled like she had before Neji's father had died, and did not realize it. How kind, she thought instead, for him to say it. She thought of Kiba and Shino as some of her most important people as well. Unknowingly, she smiled a little wider, and Kiba, who had glanced up shyly to assess her opinion, was blinded.

"Would you stay by me forever, Hinata?" The question was quiet and his mouth was set in a way that expected refusal, but his eyes, their edges tattletale to the deepest secrets of his heart, could not disguise the hope.

Solemnly, Hinata tried to imagine a life without Kiba on her team, could not, and said, "Yes."

She was swept into a bone-crushing hug immediately after her answer, and it was all she could do not to regurgitate her meal down Kiba's back. He set her back on her feet only seconds later, but her steps were stumbling as they hurried up the stairs and into the main hall of the shrine.

Waiting for them, with a small bottle of sake and three cups, was the miko the priest had called. Mina, Hinata thought fuzzily, trying to recall the name that had been mentioned.

The woman motioned them to a pair of cushions set upon the ground. "Sit down, please. Itou-sama has just gone to the back to get the contract. I'm Midori, by the way." With her long, dark hair braided down the back and her red and white hakama only slightly dusty from the chores she had been doing late that evening, she still appeared more elegant than the two ninjas before her. Hinata tucked herself more self-consciously into her coat as Midori prepared the ceremony.

With a rattle of shouji, Itou, the priest, entered from a side door, shaking out a small scroll. "Why I should be digging one of these out in the middle of the night-!" he muttered to himself, but nevertheless seated himself before the two visitors. "Are you sure about this?" he asked Kiba sharply as he settled himself and smoothed the white jo-e. When the young man nodded, he sighed again and raised a knobbly finger. "Very well. Midori, bring the lamp closer so I can read this. You've already assembled the purification tools?"

The miko nodded and obligingly lifted a light over the priest's shoulder. As the words began to flow out of his mouth and drone on, Hinata let her mind wander, watching the candle glow coming from the delicate door of the lantern that the miko held. It pulsed with the rhythm of the wind that whispered through the thin cracks and holes that had developed in the old shrine, and to Hinata that faint litany suddenly seemed very important, like the prophesy of what her future would bring. Pushing out the sound of Kiba haltingly saying phrases with no meaning, she concentrated on deciphering the fantastical tales the breeze gossiped to the firelight.

"Miss." The miko interrupted Hinata's thoughts in a quiet lull, and the young woman looked down to find the smallest sake cup before her. "Three sips," Midori prompted helpfully, and obligingly Hinata followed the command. After she had finished, the cup was removed and another, slightly larger, was handed to Kiba. He drank briefly before handing it off to her. They repeated the ritual with one more cup, the largest of the three, before the priest finished with a short speech.

He stood and they followed suit as he moved towards the back of the room, where a small but well cared for shrine sat, glittering in the light from several permanent lanterns. "Will you make an offering to bless your union?" It was more of a command than an inquiry and Kiba grimaced and began riffling his pockets for sticks, but Hinata moved forward as she removed a small clip from her hair. The remnants of her disguise from the last assignment. It was a beautiful lie in jewelry, the amethyst eyes of the butterfly winking mysteriously in the candlelight. A little clumsily she laid it before the well-lit shrine, her black hair now free to swing down and frame her face.

As she straightened, she glanced to the priest for further instruction and found him rooted to the spot, his mouth open and staring at her eyes. "_Hyuuga, _Hinata," he managed, slightly horse as he choked out the name. Kiba was at her side instantly, his arm placed instinctually in front of her. The priest paid it no mind as he continued. "Inuzuka, you have made me a bigger fool than I thought. That you would steal the princess-!"

Abruptly the priest turned and walked back to the miko, snatching the scroll out of her hands. Kiba's face darkened and he opened his mouth to argue. "I did not steal-!"

"Enough!" Itou shot back, yanking Kiba's hand up and smacking the marriage contract into his palm. "It's finished and it is my fault that I did not check the names you had written. But I will take no part of what happens after this. The punishment is on your head."

Kiba's mouth twisted into an unpleasant snarl as he grabbed Hinata's hand. "I'll face whatever comes at me! _I'm_ not afraid of ghosts!" And with a growl, he turned abruptly and marched to the door, only pausing when Hinata tripped to adjust his grip on her arm.

Cursing, the priest followed them out to the top of the stairs, shouting after their retreating forms. "And if _your_ child tries to find me, Inuzuka, I will _kill_ him!"

After two blocks of being dragged, Hinata gave an exclamation of pain and Kiba rapidly released her.

"Sorry," he muttered, rubbing at his forehead. "Sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper." His eyes snapped open as her hand groped along his shirt to find her swaying dangerously. "Hinata! Are you okay?" The sleeve of her coat was yanked up as he examined her. "I didn't mean to hold you so tight! Did I hurt you badly?" His hands moved up to catch her shoulders.

In his grasp, Hinata swayed weakly. She really shouldn't have been running again, but it was too late for that realization now. "I-I think I'm going... to be sick..." she whispered. And, without any warning, she was. All over Kiba. His nose wrinkled terribly and he gagged several times, but he managed to get her over to a wall to lean against. Carefully, he pulled her hair back and tied it with the string from her coat, hesitated briefly, then moved away.

"I'll be back," he reassured before sprinting away.

Hinata, barely suppressing another heave of her stomach, let her pounding head rest against the wall behind her. Only its firm presence told her that it wasn't an earthquake she was experiencing now, but rather the disorientation of her sense of balance.

It was roughly two minutes before Kiba returned, but to her it felt like hours. When he finally appeared on the street, he was soaking wet and Akamaru was pacing a few steps behind him while Kiba apologized. "I know I shouldn't have left you behind, Akamaru. I seem to be making a lot of mistakes tonight." The brown haired young man turned his attention to Hinata, holding a cool hand up to her forehead. "Sorry. Took me a bit longer than I thought. They wouldn't let me inside until I cleaned up. I got you some medicine. Do you think you can take it now or do you want to wait until your stomach settles a bit?"

"Wa-water," Hinata croaked out, her throat raw, and Kiba rushed to comply only to watch in horror as she quickly emptied her stomach of that sip as well. It was a few more minutes before she could keep the liquid down, and as soon as he was assured that she would not lose it, Kiba forced her to swallow the medicine as well, two more teaspoonfuls than were recommended on the bottle.

A concerned touch gently wiped over her face as he knelt beside her. "Are you sure..." he started, pausing as he calculated the distance in his head. "Do you think I can move you back to the hotel?" Hinata gave a tired nod and felt Kiba move forwards and carefully lift her up into his arms.

The trip back to the rooms Genma had paid for before dinner was a blur. Hinata had a feeling Akamaru was leading them, but she wasn't sure because she never bothered to look and Kiba kept her face turned into his chest anyway. The clock upon the wall of the small entrance to their lodgings gave twelve hollow 'bongs' as Kiba hastened up the stairs and Hinata pretended not to feel the jostling. It wasn't very difficult since she could feel sleep creeping surely forwards.

As she was laid down gently onto her futon, though, she couldn't stop her fingers. Faced with the withdrawal of warmth, they clung to the thin, damp sleeve of the arms that had carried her. Everything in the room stilled, and all Hinata could hear was the silky rustle of dual exhalations filling the space between them, but that was okay. Because, in that soft, whispering sound, she had remembered what the wind had told her, when it was conversing with the fire.

_'Don't let go. Don't ever let go.'_

And Hinata sighed in soft contentment as the medicine took effect, and said, "Stay."

For a single moment, there was only one person breathing in the room. His sleeve was the only part of him that remained firmly beside her. Kiba's soul was gone, on a separate plane from his body. Hinata, tired and worried, tugged, and then he was back, the fingers of his other hand running over her hair, her face, needing to feel to believe.

"Hi...nata..." came the faltering, tentative voice, a voice she had known for years but never heard before. "Hinata, I love you." A light kiss pressed itself against her forehead. She smiled, let her hand slide up his arm, and brought her fingertips to his neck. He kissed her then, full on the mouth, as if he couldn't stand their distance.

"I love you, too," she sighed out as he pulled back, panting lightly. Her fingers curled into his wiry hair as her consciousness struggled to remain. "...Naruto."

The neck in her hand stiffened immediately and she sleepily wondered what mistake she had made, but in only seconds it had sunk in a kind of defeat to rest against her shoulder.

Akamaru might have whined near the entranceway and there just may have been a bitter whisper that tickled her ear, but Hinata was beyond the veil of sleep by then. The defeated phrase was lost to her dreams.

"Kiba, you are the biggest fool of them all."

_What you wish for..._

_Hee, hee!_

_Were you expecting_

_to get it?_

The morning she had woken up with a splitting headache and found Kiba stretched out on the floor beside her was a morning Hinata would never forget. Not necessarily because it was the first hangover she had ever had, nor because Kiba was overly polite and timid while she searched for the medicine bundle Sakura had sent for the mission. No, it was because of the scroll she had found next to her coat (which she did not remember taking off, so Kiba must have removed it) and the contents inside. She had choked when she had read her name and Kiba's listed on the marriage contract, and when she had looked over, her 'husband' was deliberately avoiding her gaze. She would remember this morning because he had said only two words to her agonized glance, "I'm sorry." She would remember, quite simply, because she could not remember what exactly had happened the night before.

Making her way unsteadily to the bathroom, Hinata looked at her appearance in the mirror, her eyes red rimmed and her clothes disheveled, remembered Kiba's apology, and cried silent, fat crocodile tears as she wondered exactly what he was sorry for. Was he sorry they'd gotten married or sorry because now an annulment was impossible?

The following day she would remember for the rest of her life as well. They were there, all four of them, five really, counting Akamaru, standing in front of the Hokage's desk, forced to explain why the mission had succeeded and why their teamwork had not. And most of all, why two of them had defied the shinobi code of conduct and had a romantic affair, not to mention marriage, while on duty. Tsunade had listened to it all quietly. When they had finished, she merely shook her head with an expression of mixed disappointment and disbelief.

"Genma, you should know better than to allow your team to get drunk while involved in a mission. The celebrations could have waited one more day until you reported fully to me." Tsunade met his eyes squarely but the man did not reply. Hinata wondered if it was guilt or lack of an excuse that kept his mouth clenched in that stiff line. "For that mistake, your paycheck will be reduced by half." Tsunade decided. Her eyes slid right, to the young man all in black. "That goes for you as well, Sai, for provoking a fight purposefully." She gave both of them firm looks before dismissing the pair. "You may go."

The door that closed quietly behind them and Shizune sounded like the toll of doom. Hinata quivered uncontrollably and felt Kiba's hand hover over, but never rest on, her arm. As the main transgressors, they were sure to receive worse punishment than cut paychecks.

Tsunade sighed as she pointed to a pair of chairs by the wall. "Bring those closer and sit down." She waited until they morosely did what she said, then smiled grimly at the pair of hesitant expressions that faced her. "Well, here you are, the young lovers. But instead of a powerful fit of passion, you got married because you were drunk. Even I have never quite made that mistake."

"It was not..." Kiba started heatedly, only to trail off as he averted his gaze. The huge dog that lay beside the chair looked up to meet his eyes.

"Not a mistake?" Tsunade guessed, looking between the pair of them. Hinata saw the edges of her mouth slip back down into a frown. "Well, mistake or not, you have given me a very large problem and I am probably going to be nicer about it than I should." A dryly amused glance was thrown at both of their wary faces. "Oh, so you're afraid because you think I'm gonna castrate you for getting married on the job? You'd be surprised how many times it happens. A stern warning and a brief demerit is all I usually hand out."

Hinata tried softly, "So we're going to be d-demoted?"

"No," Tsunade replied, shaking her head. "You'll get the same pay cut that your two teammates have for this mission, and for the same reason as Sai. For now," she added. Her gaze fixed on Kiba. "_You, _unfortunately, just married the heir of the most powerful ninja family currently living in Konoha. And _you_," she said, swinging her eyes right to Hinata, "are going to be hard pressed to get your family to accept your elopement without a fight. They will, _of course_, come to the Hokage to resolve the problem. Technically, I don't dabble in domestic issues like these, but unfortunately your marriage is also political. I will be _forced_ to mediate and I will be _forced _to separate you if necessary."

There was a brief silence and in it Hinata felt her heart plummet into her shoes. She had not considered her family's response. She had been too busy over the past several hours dealing with _her_ response to even think about the Hyuuga.

"So what I am going to do," the fifth hokage continued in a milder voice, "is pretend that I don't even know about your marriage. You never told me and we never had this conversation. It is up to you to ease your families into it or settle the matter of divorce by yourself. _If_ I receive complaints and cries for action on my part, _then_ I will get involved. Until that time you are on your own. And trust me, you'll find the Hyuuga and Inuzuka much more forgiving if they think I didn't know about this before them. I will speak to Genma and Sai about this as well. Shizune should be detaining them in a side room."

In the chairs, Hinata glanced over at Kiba to find her teammate's attention was fixed firmly on the hands in his lap. He was blaming himself, she knew, but she had no words of comfort because she didn't know if it was actually his fault or not. She shifted her gaze back to Tsunade and heard Akamaru move as well, but she did not understand that the pitying gaze that the Hokage turned upon them was not because of Hinata's white face but because Kiba's furtive stare at his new wife was so desperate that it crushed the spirit.

"You should work together to resolve this situation." The dismissal was clear in her voice. "Good luck."

_We'll tell you stories,_

_Princess stories,_

_hard stories,_

_they're your stories, you know?_

"These are the choices father has given."

Hinata glanced up to find Hinabi beside her, holding out four sheets of paper. Her sister's expression was one of veiled impatience, and Hinata wondered silently and morosely how long she had sat daydreaming as she gazed at the rain out her window. At the top of the frame, the wind chimes hung there stood currently silent. The trailing drops that crept down the glass pane had turned into character strokes in her imagination. Slowly, they spelt out her name, Hyuu-ga Hi-na-ta, and closely beside that, to the left, Inu-zuka Ki-ba, and above that, in morose gray slashes, Kon-in-todoke. Marriage contract.

**婚姻届**

犬塚 キバ 日向ヒナタ

Hinata didn't know if she was relieved or terrified at the opportunity to look away. If she turned her back, would they get worse? But what was worse than her current situation?

Hanabi, unknowingly, pushed the answer into her hands.

"Take them," she instructed, tersely, impatiently, and waited only until Hinata's hands came up automatically to grasp the sheets. She continued as her older sister spread the papers numbly. "Father wants a decision by the end of next week. Once you pick he has to set up a meeting and arrange travel plans."

Roughly, Hinata drew in a choked breath that sounded suspiciously like a sob. She had known, had felt the pressure looming before she went on her last unfortunate mission, that her family was anxious to have her marry. It was the primary reason why she had started to avoid her father almost religiously. At twenty four, with her next birthday rapidly approaching, and as the female heir of the Hyuuga clan, it was her duty to marry quickly and produce children, extend the family into another generation. If she had been a man she might have been granted a few more years grace, but since she was a woman and a kunoichi, it was important that she carry and deliver a babe before any unforeseen accidents or the mounting stress on her body destroyed her ability. Even Hanabi, with a genius skill that surpassed Hinata's own, would not have been able to escape this fate.

But, the Hyuuga heir thought with certainty, her sister would have been able to confront this inevitability with a much more fatalistic calm. As she spread the portfolios of four men, each from prominent families from Mist or Sand – there were two from here – or Cloud, and stared down at their lifeless and expressionless faces, Hinata felt a sudden pang in her heart: she wished Kiba were here. He would bristle and rage where she could not, he would make disparaging comments about her distant suitors that would get so outrageous that she would finally have to smile, he would continue with malicious enjoyment until her laughter filled the room, and then, with a simple phrase, he would comfort her with only a tenth of the effort he had put into ridiculing the men.

"_You won't have to marry any of these idiots…"_

"See someone you like?" Hanabi inquired curiously, actually pausing in quiet surprise on her way out the door. Hinata's eyes rose to hers in question, and her sister explained with a contemplative frown. "You're smiling."

The gentle curve of her lips faltered slightly. She hadn't even realized. But of course Kiba could always make her smile. Her old teammates both had the ability to pull it out from her, but where Shino got only the soft smiles of friendship, Kiba always managed to steal whatever particular emotion he was after at the time. Even in his absence, he was good at wiggling in to her mood, and she thought of him with fondness for his vicarious cheer until his voice in her imagination finished the reassurance he had begun with steadfast confidence.

"_You won't have to marry any of these idiots because you're already married to me."_

And suddenly her life went from worst to worse.

She was expected to choose a husband in five days, expected to begin fulfilling her duties to her clan by perpetuating the line and forming a brilliant alliance, expected to complacently agree to this sham of self-determination and marry a man she never would have met if her father hadn't found him for her. She was expected to be a Hyuuga until the day she died.

And she had been an Inuzuka for three days now.

How would she ever confess this to her family? Would they force a divorce? Would they treat her like Neji's father? Or would they ruthlessly punish her rebellion by ignoring the marriage contract and wedding her to one of these moribund faces? Her milky eyes flicked to the small, rectangular box beneath her window that held the scroll that had changed her life in just one signature. The contract Kiba had given her silently as they left the Hokage's office was locked inside. And Kiba, she thought, how would she ever forgive Kiba? His morose expression had pulled at her soul, but her stomach had dropped with the weight of the roll of paper in her palm. _Why_ had he married her? Had he been just drunk and impulsive, like she apparently had been? He had made a mistake. They had made a mistake. _She_ had made a mistake. How, oh how, would she ever forgive _herself_?

"Hinata?" Hanabi asked, her frown growing more profound as her sister's face loss several shades of color.

Abruptly, the girl on the floor stood, leaves of paper slipping and floating gently to the ground as she fixed her gaze determinedly on the door. "I'm going out. I won't be back for dinner. I'll spend the night at Sensei's."

Without even waiting for Hanabi's response to her uncustomary briskness, Hinata flew out of her room, snagged an umbrella near the door, shuffled quickly into her sandals, and took off into the rain.

_You've dreamed, in that tower,_

_of cutting your hair_

_and climbing down_

_all by yourself, haven't you?_

Kurenai took her in without question. When she had opened the back door to find her former student standing there, she had quickly exclaimed and ushered Hinata in, getting her a towel from the nearby linen cabinet and sitting her down at the kitchen table. From the living room, her dark haired son, Koshou, had looked up briefly and waved a friendly hello to the girl before focusing back on the video game he was currently engrossed in. Bringing over a cup of hot tea, Kurenai watched Hinata carefully wrap her fingers around it and bring it close enough to let the steam warm her face.

The red eyes fixed upon her were kind. "Do you want to talk about it?" Hinata's old sensei asked.

"Tomorrow. Maybe. I don't know." She let her gaze drift over to the window, watched the characters begin to form again in the droplets there, and hastily shifted her eyes.

A soft assurance was given back over the table top. "Okay. When you're ready. You can stay here as long as you need."

And Hinata had never been more grateful to the older woman in her life. Tears bubbled up and lingered at the tops of her cheeks, but didn't fall, and she felt comforted. They sat in companionable silence for almost half an hour, Hinata finishing her first cup and lingering over her second, before Koshou turned off the television and wandered over to the table to pull Hinata into a game of koi-koi. Hinata was surprised to note that the hanafuda cards were decorated with images of legendary ninjas. She held one of her cards up to examine the detail put into the third hokage, a monkey outlined in shadow behind him.

"It's like a bingo book, isn't it?" Koshou said, pulling her attention away from the image. With a start Hinata realized that it was her turn and quickly paired up one of her cards to another that was recently placed in the center of the table, matching Zabuza to billows of mist. She flipped the next card in the draw pile and was shocked to see Naruto's face staring back at her. Slowly, she placed it in the center before drawing Zabuza back into her five point pile.

Koshou quickly snagged Naruto with a bowl of ramen, drew the next card and managed to match a picture of Gaara as well with an image of a dirt devil of sand. The boy grinned as he placed his high scoring cards respectively into the ten and twenty point piles. "That was lucky!" he exclaimed happily as Hinata went again.

"Where did you get these?" Hinata asked, pulling in another five point ninja.

"Temari-oneechan got them for me," the young boy replied. His hand eagerly reached for the deck, hesitating only millimeters away from picking it up. "I'll shuffle it again," he assured quickly, before fanning out the cards and quickly pulling one out. It was held up to Hinata for her inspection. "This one's my favorite."

On the card were three ANBU, distinctive animal masks tied around their heads, all in defensive positions. Only one was female, with her dark hair pinned securely back and out of her face. She was standing to the left, with her fingers forming a pattern for genjutsu. The man in the center held a shurigan loosely as he crouched down low, the white tuft of hair above his mask barely visible. Already expecting who she would find, Hinata let her gaze slip to the right to the last man, whose trench knives were hung casually upon the sash at his waist as the cigarette in his hand spiraled smoke that made up the frame of the card. Behind them, a golden gong put the characters into beautiful contrast. The young woman examining the picture looked up. "But Kurenai-sensei was never an ANBU."

Across from her, Koshou smiled a little crookedly. "Yeah. Shika says they must have used 'artist's prerogative' or something. But doesn't dad look cool in that?" He bounced excitedly in his chair. "Temari-oneechan said she _had_ to buy it when she saw that."

With a fond smile, Hinata returned the card. The boy rapidly reshuffled the deck and began the game again. By the time they finished it was nearing dinner time and Hinata was tired, but her heart was lighter than it had been in days, and she went without a fuss when Kurenai shooed her into the guest room after the simple meal they had shared around that small kitchen table. Her dreams that night focused on events from years ago, when her hair was still short, Akamaru was still tiny, and Shino's second jacket was nowhere in sight.

Kurenai found her early the next morning sitting at the table slowly flipping through Koshou's hanafuda cards. Milky white eyes glanced up at the sound of soft feet entering the room. "They're really very nice," Hinata said as explanation, as Kurenai's red gaze flicked to her hands.

"Koshou's quite proud of them," the older woman replied, taking a seat at the table with graceful ease. "Lately he's taken to asking everyone he knows to play koi-koi with him. Shikamaru's Temari just about bursts with pride every time he takes them out, since she secretly commissioned one of the sand artists to make them for his birthday."

Instead of smiling at the light joke, Hinata stopped at a particular card in the deck, staring at it for several moments before laying it carefully on the table. She felt rather than saw her old sensei glance down at the picture. The question escaped before she even had time to think about it. "Do you ever wish you were married?"

In reply, Kurenai grew quieter, her hand lifting slowly towards the card. The ring on her finger glinted briefly in the early morning sun. She wore it out of love, Hinata knew, because that's why Asuma had given it to her, but it did not signify any promise. Gently, a long finger stroked over the only face that mattered on the card: Koshou's father's. "Sometimes." The red eyes flicked back up as Kurenai's head tilted slightly, curious. "Do you?"

And Hinata couldn't help it. She flinched, and flinched baldly, the chair thumping out her disquiet into the silent house.

Kurenai's gaze instantly took on a measure of understanding. "The Hyuuga's are pushing the issue."

Stubbornly, Hinata shook her head. "No. Y-yes. But it's not like that. It's not about that." The words that she had kept bottled inside overflowed and rushed out quickly. "They don't understand. I-it doesn't matter anymore. I can't get married for them. A-and I don't know how I'm going to tell everyone! The Hokage said I had to handle it without her, and I don't think I can, but I have to. B-but father said I had to p-pick someone by the end of the week, and I don't know what to s-say." She ended on a hiccup.

"Calm down." The command broke in gently but firmly, interrupting the rapid torrent of explanation that was emerging from Hinata. Kurenai waited until her former pupil had stopped gulping and taken several deep breaths before continuing with her next question. "Now, tell me slowly. Why can't you get married?"

"B-because I already am," Hinata stuttered out, trepidation leaking into her voice. She looked at the woman across from her warily, as if expecting reprimand for her carelessness.

Instead Kurenai's expression, if anything, grew more understanding. "And no wonder, with the Hyuuga clan breathing down your neck about producing the next generation. It is rare for there to be love in arranged marriages, especially initially. In a similar situation, I would want to run away. Who did you elope with?"

At this Hinata closed her eyes. She couldn't quite bear to see her old teacher's reaction, especially when she was so mixed up herself. Her answer emerged in a strangled whisper.

"Kiba-kun."

The room was silent for almost two minutes after that. Hinata cautiously opened her eyes to find the older woman studying her intently, eyes fixed upon her face. A thoughtful frown had bloomed upon her lips. Her mouth opened twice before shutting again each time, as if she were thinking better of inquiring. "He finally con-?" she started, before abruptly changing the question. "When?" But it could have been a 'How?' or 'Why?' Hinata sensed, and so plowed on with the explanation her former sensei hinted at.

"A-at the end of the last mission we went on together. F-four days ago. We were drunk. K-kiba-kun was upset. I think we went to a temple. I don't remember after that. I have the c-contract in my room." Again the gray characters danced before her eyes as she stared down at the wooden table.

A long sigh emerged from the other side. "What a mess. Poor girl." The melancholy grew more pronounced. "Poor Kiba." The long fingers still hovering near the card gave two unhappy raps. "What a mess," Kurenai repeated.

"What do I do?" Hinata asked shakily, looking up once more.

"What do you want to do?" Kurenai countered.

The young woman gave a helpless shrug. She wished that nothing had happened in the first place and that her marriage to _anyone_ wasn't an issue. But life had already steadily moved on, dragging her with it.

Another sigh flowed into the conversation. "What a mess." At the third repetition, Kurenai seemed to shake herself. "Well, the Hokage has said she would not get involved - I'm assuming for political reasons?" with Hinata's nod, the woman continued, "but that does not mean you're out of options. You can dissolve the marriage through another Kage, you can keep it and refuse to marry any of the people the Hyuuga are pushing for, you can divorce and remain single, and all sorts of variations on this theme. None of your choices will be easy," Kurenai warned seriously, "so you need to be sure of what your heart really wants. But none of them are impossible." The hand on the table gently caught Hinata's and held onto it as Kurenai smiled kindly. "And you know I'll always help you however I can. Don't tell the boys, but you are the student I am most proud of. You grew the most in those years I taught you all."

Several beats passed before Hinata smiled weakly but gratefully back. "Thank you."

Then Koshou raced down the stairs and the moment was broken in the rush of activity that was breakfast and getting ready for the academy, but Kurenai stopped her overnight guest on her doorstep only minutes after her son had left.

"Hinata," she said seriously, and the younger woman turned back, "there is one thing you absolutely must do. It might be the most difficult of all, but there's no way you can do anything before it. Relationships, no matter the type, require communication." The red painted mouth firmed into a solemn line. "Hinata, you have to speak with Kiba."

_We think you'll try._

_We think you'll fail._

_But we think you'll get up_

_and try again._

Shino greeted her as she entered the training ground they used on a biweekly basis. It was one of Hinata's favorites, with several trees, interspersed open glades, and a stream flowing through the center. The variety and sheer amount of _things_ made it more interesting and challenging to use her Byakugan to focus only on the opponent. She looked up at the dark sunglasses as she stepped past the short row of poles denoting the perimeter, smiling at her long-time team member. "Hello, Shino-kun."

"Hello," he replied, nodding down at her. She could tell by his voice that he was smiling as well. "You're early."

"I was with Kurenai-sensei. It's a shorter walk. You're here early as well."

The bug user shook his head, glasses slipping just slightly down his nose. "I'm always here at this time," he explained. "But the lazy one beat us both today."

Startled, Hinata's gaze followed his head jerk to find Kiba scrunched up against a tree with his shoulders hunched and Akamaru lying beside him. His face was so obviously pointed in another direction that she realized that he must have been staring at her until Shino had pointed him out. She was surprised to see him there so early, since he was usually the last to arrive even when they started at their normal time of nine.

"I think he's been there since sunrise," Shino continued his tone growing slightly miffed. "He didn't even bother to say hello when I got here. Akamaru was at least friendly."

"A-ah, the last mission was difficult," Hinata explained nervously, wondering what Shino would think of the probable real reason Kiba was upset. She watched as Akamaru stood up and paced over to her side with a content lolling of his tongue. Her body leaned into him almost naturally. Here, Hinata thought with slightly bitter irony, was the one person who would still love her no matter what she decided to do.

Shino was watching her with raised eyebrows but remained silent, choosing in the end to shrug Kiba's rudeness off. "Whatever. He should be recovered enough by now to spar decently."

As if on cue, Kiba approached them next, scuffling up almost defensively as he joined his teammates. His shoulders were still uncharacteristically hunched over. "Hey." His eyes focused on Shino, but every once in a while they would flick over to Hinata and Akamaru.

"Hey," Shino replied, tone just faintly sour. "Are you gonna practice with us today or are you not feeling up to it?"

Kiba bristled almost immediately, shoulders drawing back into their natural set as he growled back, "I'm fine! I've been thinking up strategies all morning. Me and Akamaru will fight against you and Hinata today."

"We did that last week," the sunglass wearing young man replied calmly.

"Well, we need more practice!" the other shinobi bit back quickly. "You two could work on hiding your scents more!"

"And you could hone that nose of yours," Shino pointed out mildly.

"So it's like hide and seek, K-kiba-kun?" Hinata cut in quickly, trying to forestall an impromptu fight from developing. Akamaru moved to stand firmly between her and the two boys, turning his head to look pointedly at Kiba.

The Inuzuka flinched almost imperceptively and hastily turned the action into a firm nod. He glanced at Shino and visibly forced himself to relax. "That's right. We'll all split up and me and Akamaru will wait twenty minutes before starting to search for both of you. In two hours, if you still haven't been found and we haven't found anyone, then we'll meet back up at the entrance and I'll work harder on improving my ability. But if we've found both of you in two hours, then I'm gonna make sure you get better at hiding your scent. Last week we only practiced combat. This week we'll work on stealth."

Shino's dark sunglasses revealed little of his expression, but finally he nodded in acquiescence. "Okay. That sounds fine."

Beside them, Hinata relaxed and nodded as well. "Two hours from now, right?"

From a distance, the village clock bells announced the time in eerie prescience. Kiba glanced up towards the sun. "That's right. You ready?" When there were general mummers of consent, he let an anticipatory grin slip. "Then let's go!"

Automatically Hinata broke into a sprint, rushing south east into the cover of the trees and towards the stream. It would be the fastest and most economical way to conceal her scent from Kiba and Akamaru. For a while she could sense Shino racing behind her before he broke off and took another direction, his presence blinking out of her awareness as he began using techniques and bugs to hide himself.

She reached the water in another minute, quickly using her Byakugan to look for anyone nearby before pulling her jacket off, tying it up around her shoulders, and wading into the water. She went in up to her waist and downstream half a kilometer before using chakra to pull herself up and onto the surface of the small river. Another five kilometers were sprinted, with a three short trips onto land to lay down false trails, before Hinata began to look for a good hiding place that would still give her a lookout and ample time to move away if Kiba or Akamaru picked up her scent. Spotting a tree with a wide hollow, she quickly doused her feet again, shook them free over water droplets as best she could, and used her agility to jump lithely onto a low hanging branch and into the forest. When she arrived at the tree she had picked out, she put her jacket back on and huddled down to reduce any chance of being spotted, focusing her Byakugan at the same time and trying to reach out her senses to find her pursuers.

It had taken nearly thirty minutes to pick her hiding spot. When another hour had passed with no sign of either Kiba or Akamaru impinging on her solitude, Hinata's thoughts began to break into her vigilance.

Perhaps, she thought with a twinge of discomfort, perhaps Kiba was now avoiding her. She knew, from her discussion with Kurenai, that they needed to talk, but perhaps by now Kiba didn't want to. For the past five days she had avoided _him_ studiously. She had refused to allow him to explain, she had climbed out her window when he came by the Hyuuga compound, she had done all that she was able, in short, to prevent him from bringing up this hole they had fallen into. And now, when she knew the subject must be broached, perhaps Kiba had given up. Or, worse, perhaps he had left her to figure it out herself.

And that, Hinata realized, was one thing she was not ready to do.

Kiba was her trusted teammate, had been for years. He was someone she knew she could turn to with any difficulty and he would assist in any way he could. She had forgotten that important aspect of his personality, that he was loyal, that he would never leave her in the lurch, and yet for the last near week she had acted as if this was her problem alone. If he abandoned her now, just when she had an epiphany...

But he hadn't.

"Found you," a quiet voice called from below her. Hinata, startled, wobbled on her perch and hazarded a look downwards, only to find a concerned Kiba two feet up the tree. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Kiba-kun!" Hurriedly regaining her balance, Hinata leapt from the branches down the tree. "I-it's alright," she assured softly as his feet touched the ground again. She was a ninja, after all. She shouldn't have lost track of where she was in the first place. He made a wordless sound of acknowledgment.

And then, quite simply, there was nothing to say. How did one start a conversation that would determine one's future? Hinata thought with a little bubble of controlled hysteria. She should have been contemplating that for the last hour instead of Kiba's unrealized desertion. Shaking her head, Hinata stiffened her shoulders. There was nothing for it, she would have to plow on ahead and hope that she said the right thing. "Kiba-kun, I-I think we need to -"

"Hinata, I need to talk to-" he said at the same time. Cutting off mid-sentence, Kiba looked a little sheepish as he gestured. "Go ahead."

Taking a deep breath, she continued. "Kiba-kun, we should talk about the m-marriage."

"Yeah," he agreed with a sigh. But when he turned and began walking away she nervously trotted a few steps to keep pace. "I am sorry," Kiba finally burst out, looking both frustrated and woebegone. He appeared to Hinata, as he glanced over at her cautiously before moving forward once more, like a puppy who knew he had misbehaved. "I was drunk and Sai set me off, but I should have, well..."

"We were both drunk," Hinata interjected. It was time she took on some of this responsibility that Kiba was shouldering on his own. It took two people, after all, to get married. Impulsively she reached out and tugged on his coat, just as she used to when they were children and she wanted to get his attention. "We-we'll solve this together."

Slowly the tension dropped out of the shoulders ahead of her. "Alright. You know I'll do whatever I can." He turned back with a half-smile that was a vague shadow of his usually fiercely joyful temperament. "We've been teammates for over ten years. If we work together this should be a breeze." Falling into step beside her, Kiba asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I-I think it would be best if we end the marriage legally. What about you?"

Kiba was silent for a few seconds before he nodded out into the forest. "We'll go with your plan." His right hand lingered for a moment over her head before dropping away, and Hinata felt the new awkwardness between them painfully as she realized he had meant to ruffle her hair affectionately but was unsure how she would take the gesture. "Did you want a divorce?" Kiba asked, his tone a trifle stilted.

"Tsunade-sama mentioned an annulment," Hinata replied, sounding morose. How long until they could resume their previous companionship? Would they _ever_?

"We can't do it through Konoha," her companion was saying. His voice gained strength as he began focusing on the problem. "The Hokage basically told us as much. We'll have to ask another village." He hummed roughly to himself as he scratched the back of his neck, obviously pondering a solution. Hinata waited quietly for his conclusion. She could talk to Sakura after this as well for help. As Tsunade's apprentice, Sakura knew a lot about the other leaders and their villages. "Ah!" Kiba exclaimed, disrupting her chain of thought. "We'll ask Sand. The mission I'm set up for in three days has us dropping by to pick up a couple of their shinobi for a joint investigation. It's confidential, so I can't get you in on it, I'm not even supposed to be talking about it, but I'll see if I can't grab an hour and try and see the Kazekage. Shikamaru's supposed to be close to the Kage's sister, maybe he can get me in."

He glanced over and saw her pensive face. "Eh? You don't like it?"

"It's not that." Hinata shook her head. It was just... The image of the papers she had received yesterday lingered in her head. "My family is pushing for my marriage."

Kiba's expression would have been almost comical if she was paying attention. "T-then you want to stay-"

"No. It's just that two of the people they've told me to c-choose from are from Sand. I-I'd rather no one found out that I'm already married."

When she glanced up his face had hardened. "Because you want to marry one of them?"

The surprised horror that ran through her must have showed because he immediately softened. "N-no! I just – I just – I don't want my family to find out third hand or be b-blackmailed or anything." This time his hand didn't hesitate; it gruffly pulled her to his shoulder. "I don't want to marry anyone."

"Ah, those bastards have started putting the pressure on again? Why won't they just leave you alone? I thought after your cousin... Hmmph. If..." Kiba started, quietly. "If you wanted, I could... hmm..." He trailed off into silence and after a moment the offer was lost.

Regaining her composure, Hinata pulled back and his arm dropped away from her shoulders. "Maybe we should go to a different village."

"No," the shinobi beside her denied swiftly, beginning to walk north again. "Sand's the best choice. We're on friendly terms, so it'll be easier, and I'll make sure to be discrete." Hinata sighed but nodded in agreement. After a moment, as they reached a bend in the river and began to cross over it, Kiba spoke again. "So when's the deadline?"

"What?"

"The deadline," he explained, "for choosing your ball and chain. Your permanent and binding one." If there was a note of strain in his words it was too faint for her to distinguish clearly. "After all," Kiba continued, sandals crunching for a few steps in the gravel of the bank, "your family wouldn't give you multiple choice homework without setting a due date."

"Eight days from today," was the solemn reply.

A tongue click resounded in the small clearing. "Short leash. Idiot elders aren't really giving you much time before they tie you to someone you don't even know." His face turned from her view as he shook his head. "Alright. I'll be back before then. You'll be free, in every sense of the word, to give them your reply. And if you want to tell them to go to hell, well, I'll be right there beside you."

Eight days until she had to finally bow to her family's demands. The specter of those four sheets of statistics floated before her vision again and resolutely she shut them out. It was better to focus on the positives. Less than eight days until her first rushed 'marriage' was resolved. The thought lightened her heart. Perhaps she had not made so terrible a mistake as she had feared. "Thank you, Kiba-kun. I wish I could do more-"

"Don't thank me." The words were mumbled roughly back at her.

"W-what?"

Immediately Kiba flipped to her. "Don't thank me," he enunciated clearly, brow low over his eyes.

Her puzzled expression swallowed up any gratitude. "Why? I mean, you're the one going to all this trouble. It's very kind of – ah!" Hinata broke off sharply as Kiba's fingers wrapped around her upper arm. His face was an agonized mix of frustration and bitterness. The sound of the river and the forest faded into the background as she felt his palm shake slightly against her triceps.

"Don't. Thank. Me." he told her very slowly. "Your appreciation isn't what I want."

The features above her were close enough that Hinata could make out the individual strands of his lashes. She had always admired them, she remembered with a touch of idiosyncrasy. When he slept curled up with Akamaru on missions, you could see those tiny, elegant black hairs fanned neatly against the press of off-white fur. Those lashes bounced as he blinked and Hinata snapped out of her fascination to ask the question that had been skittering around her mind, avoiding expression with some unknown prescience. "What do you want?"

Her voice emerged almost breathlessly between them, and Hinata inhaled sharply as she saw his gaze waver down to her lips. This close to him, the influx of air was not lost in the wind and Kiba cursed under his breath before his fingers tightened and he pulled her up.

_I'm being kissed_, Hinata thought fuzzily as her breath caught in her throat. With the fierce press of his lips against hers, it could hardly be considered romantic, but it was certainly intense. If this was how men kissed, she wasn't sure why Ino and Sakura insisted it was immensely enjoyable. The pressure was almost a declaration. But when her mouth shifted beneath his, and he gentled, the sweep of giddy nerves that ran across her lips made her shiver with an intoxication she had never experienced. Her soft sigh of wonder lingered in the scant space between them before he was back, his head tilted slightly, his mouth less wild but no less insistent. And when she began reciprocating his movements, the air simmered. _I'm being kissed_, Hinata thought again, a faint amazed smile curving her lips as she leaned into it. A growl answered her. _By Kiba._ And then, the electrifying thought, _I'm kissing Kiba__-kun__!_

With a gasp, Hinata ripped her eyes open. Kiba, who must have felt the sudden tension, pulled back immediately, but his gaze didn't rise to meet hers. Instead it stayed almost deprecatingly internal, his eyes fixed on a nearby tree but not seeing any details. Rooted by this sight, Hinata remained silent as his breathing steadied. "What I want... maybe understanding." A short unhappy laugh left him as he dropped her arm and stepped away. "Or perhaps ignorance." His whisper was almost lost as he turned and began walking again. "Would it hurt to consider me?"

Hinata remained standing there, underneath the shade of the large oak trees barely a thousand meters from the entrance of the practice grounds, for nearly five minutes. The river, bubbling to itself behind her, finally brought her back to reality. Kiba had kissed her. Kissed her until nothing else mattered. As if nothing else really did.

She would have asked why, but she was unsure she wanted to. Kiba, who for twelve years had been one of her closest friends, that Kiba had kissed her. Not by mistake. And, oh god, he'd married her. Not by mistake? Her heart gave several loud thumps and irrationally she clasped her hands over it to calm it down. She'd have to ask. She'd have to ask if he remembered that night and if he could give her the details. She'd have to ask why he'd married her in the first place. She would have to. But her courage faltered a bit. _Would they ever be friends again?_ She'd do it tomorrow.

When she reached the meeting spot, only Shino was there, leaning atop one of the short poles. He stood as he saw her clear the trees and waited silently until she drew near. "Kiba and Akamaru have left already," he announced unnecessarily. At Hinata's distracted acknowledgment, he continued. "They got me in only fifty minutes. Tag-teamed the trails I'd laid down until I was barely keeping up with setting false paths. With all the attention being focused on me, I was sure they'd never find you. But Kiba told me he'd got you twenty minutes ago before stalking off with Akamaru."

"I...I wasn't paying attention," Hinata replied after a moment, processing what her teammate had said slowly. How long had she kissed him? She hadn't even heard the clock bells.

Shino gave her a long, assessing stare that she barely noticed before nodding to himself. "I'd guessed that. Akamaru didn't even go to find you, just looked at Kiba seriously then plopped down beside me." He stood and shrugged his jacket straight, then glanced down at her. "You okay?"

Hinata remained silent to that question so long that she began to hear Shino's bugs skittering in response to his unspoken anxiety. But broaching two difficult subjects in one day took more deliberate courage than she could amass in a minute. "Shino-kun...d-does Kiba-kun like me?"

The movement of tiny legs stilled. "Of course. We both like you. Has someone been giving you a hard time?" The unspoken accusation that it was Kiba made her mouth twitch into a small smile for a second. Shino, while an excellent friend, was good at holding a grudge. He was probably still miffed that Kiba had ignored him this morning.

"No," she replied, "I mean, does he like me a lot? More than other people, the way I l-like Naruto-kun..." she trailed off, suddenly embarrassed and confused. Why hadn't she thought of Naruto in the last few hours?

Beside her, Shino sighed. "Ah, I get it now. They were separating us for a reason. Did Kiba tell you something just now?"

A blush suffused Hinata's face as she returned her thoughts to their absent teammate. "N-not really." She glanced up when she felt Shino's skeptical eyes upon her. "I just... I guessed that he might..."

"Well," Shino started, then let the comment fall off. "Well," he began again, "Kiba's always been a little moonstruck. I think you'd better ask him yourself, though." He started back to the village and she fell into step beside him. "Right now, I'm upset with him, so I'll likely kill his character in front of you just for fun," he added with faint humor. "And then he'll really hunt me down. Forget about today, that was just warm-up." He waited until she smiled, dodging a small group of academy students sprinting in the opposite direction, then continued nonchalantly, "You know we'll always be friends, right? No matter what happens, what Kiba says, or what you say."

Sniffing a bit, Hinata firmed her smile up again from its trembling fit of sentimentality. "Yes. I know. Thanks." Because he had said it, they would be.

_When your world changes_

_will you change with it?_

_Or will you tumble_

_as everything falls down?_

She meant to speak to Kiba immediately the next day, she honestly had. It's just that when she had come home that afternoon after dropping by the Hokage's office to check in and discover her lack of mission assignments, she had been asked to attend a family dinner that night. Her heart gave a few dark thumps as she realized she would likely not be happy at home now until she was married, and when she married it wouldn't really be her home any longer. It would be hers and her husband's. For the first time Hinata truly hated that she was currently on the 'protection assignment,' an unspoken order developed since Pain that kept a certain percentage of shinobi in the leaf village to defend against attack, and that she likely would not be leaving for another month, until enough shinobi on missions had returned and she was cycled back into the regular assignments. It would be so much easier if she had an excuse to leave, especially since it would give her an excuse to delay as well. But that was a coward's way of thinking. Calming herself, Hinata changed to a simple yet elegant kimono and went down to eat.

Dinner was not an easy affair. Neji was at the table, which made it slightly more tolerable, since he spoke often with her father about various Hyuuga techniques and discussed the politics currently occurring with the council and the Hokage.

Hanabi was seated beside her, which also made the evening pass faster, since her sister was comfortable in silence and did not feel the need to press conversation when the other two at the table were not paying them any attention. In fact, Hinata was almost positive she would make it through the meal without a problem when Neji's topics exhausted themselves and her father turned to her.

"We missed you at dinner last night, Hinata."

With a small clatter of her chopsticks against her rice bowl, Hinata hastily set them down. "P-please excuse me. I had to speak with Kurenai-sensei." Just a small portion of fish to finish and then she could leave the table. But she didn't dare eat until she could stop her hands from trembling. _Please don't let him continue._

But of course he did. "I hear you've received the reports the elders have assembled on eligible suitors. You need to consider them well. We need your decision by the end of next week."

This was nothing new, but Hinata still glanced up. It was too much to hope her father would stand up for her, but still, perhaps if he knew how much she didn't want an arranged marriage...? The face across the table was impassive. Beside her father, Neji was carefully not looking at her. Hanabi was chewing as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on at all. Schooling her expression, Hinata returned to her dinner. "I understand."

Stuck with those four impassive photos then, unless a miracle occurred. Suddenly the last bit of fish looked revolting. "E-excuse me, I forgot I was going to meet Shizune-san this evening, we need to go over a report."

The silence in the next ten seconds almost killed her nerves, but her father nodded. "Very well. Please remember what I've said."

With a hurried gratitude, she rose and left the room. Outside the door, the faint murmur of Neji's voice was unintelligible, but her father's sigh hit her to the core. "My hands are tied. I wish she'd taken an interest in marriage before it came to this. But the clan won't tolerate her indifference to the matter." There would be no help coming from home. She wished she could take the stairs by twos at that point, but in the kimono she was reduced to a smaller step.

Inside her room she quickly stripped out of the restrictive garment and donned her familiar kunoichi outfit. Dislodging the last flower pin from her hair, she noticed the small pile of papers by the window, fluttering slightly in the wind with her chime. Right where she had left them. On a determined impulse, Hinata scooped them up and folded them into four. The ornate box beneath the window, with its scrolled decoration, was snapped open and she stuffed the papers inside, next to the thin scroll that had rocked her world less than a week ago. Closing the lid decisively, Hinata left the house.

Instead of going towards the Hokage's tower, she walked the streets past her old school yard. The academy had released its students hours ago and the building was deserted, a perfect place for a young woman trying to avoid her life, Hinata thought with some irony, touching the old walls, skimming over windowpanes, before moving to the lone swing in the playground. She used to see Naruto hug himself into this amusement on his harder afternoons, and right now Hinata could use whatever comfort had seeped into the old chain and slim seat. With all her problems safely confined for the time being in the same place, she let herself be rocked by the familiarity of old history for almost an hour before returning home and going to bed early, the lingering impression of a kiss haunting her dreams.

When she awoke the next morning, rumpled but in better spirits, she had forgotten entirely about discussing Kiba's motivations with him. Her eyes had landed on the nearby clock and it had taken nearly a minute for Hinata to realize that she had overslept and was late. Dressing quickly, she'd grabbed a quick breakfast and rushed out.

Both Ino and Sakura were already at a small table in one of the old hospital reception areas when Hinata arrived. The room was too small for the current patient population to wait comfortably and when it had been abandoned Sakura had quickly requisitioned it for use as a teaching room. Four nights a week the table hosted a dummy patient that nurses in training resuscitated as quickly and cleanly as possible. Two nights a week it held displays while medical personnel listened to lectures about the latest remedies and life saving techniques developed. And one night a month the training staff, headed by Sakura, met to discuss concerns and improvements to the schedule. This morning, however, the table was filled with a pile of small linen pouches and a litter of empty glass vials.

Sakura, who was holding one of those vials between a pinched forefinger and thumb with concentration, barely glanced up as she entered. Ino, however, rolled her eyes with exasperation.

"You're almost forty minutes late, you know. We only get this room for two hours and I'm not good enough to fill half of these by myself." With a grimace, the blond swept an arm out to point at the small pile of filled bags next to her and the much larger stack near Sakura.

The bags themselves were filled with two vials, both full of a carefully measured amount of chakra. This chakra could be used in emergency situations by non-medic ninja who were familiar with the main chakra points. The injection would provide a burst of energy to the patient that could save their life until better care was received. Right now, Sakura wanted every unit to go out with at least four linen bags in their pack, but until more people with superior chakra control were able to prepare the vials, that goal was difficult to meet. Especially since filling just fifty vials usually left Hinata drained for two days. Ino averaged just thirty five. It amazed her that Sakura could do nearly a hundred. And still have energy left over to perform surgeries in the afternoon if needed.

"Good morning. Where's Shizune-san?" Hinata asked as she neared the two girls. The Hokage's assistant usually joined them in their bimonthly stocking effort.

"Out on a mission," Sakura said shortly as a green glow kindled itself to life beneath her fingers. With a satisfied hum, she dropped it into the bag open in front of her and pulled the drawstring closed. "Good morning," she said as the bag joined the pile beside her. Green eyes glanced up as Sakura smiled. "How have you been? I'm afraid I haven't seen you for a couple of weeks since the hospital was a mess the day you gave your report to Tsunade-sensei. Been a rash of food poisoning going around. Naruto swears it's the new ramen place that's opened up, but I think he's just upset at the competition."

Hinata let out a small laugh as she pulled out a chair and took a seat. "I'm fine. Genma-san led the last mission I was on, so it wasn't difficult. It was a-afterward..."

"Afterward," Ino prompted with an interested look as she pushed a large stack of vials in Hinata's direction. "That sounds interesting. 'Afterward with Genma-san' sounds like you're taking a leaf out of Sakura's book."

"Shut up, Ino-pig," Sakura said affably as Hinata stammered out a denial. "Just because I ended up marrying an older man doesn't mean that I've turned into some infamous criminal."

The blond glanced back slyly. "No, but marrying your old sensei sure put the ancient cats in this town into a tizzy. I swear, I suffered just being associated with you. Iruka-sensei even dodged me in the street."

With a roll of her eyes, Sakura turned away from her longtime friend. Ino stuck her tongue out as she reached for the next vial. "So," Sakura prompted, focusing on Hinata as she opened her next bag, "what happened afterward? I know Sai was on that mission, too, so I'm betting it was something embarrassing."

"Sai-kun's a sweetie!" Ino interjected. "Seriously, Sakura, I don't know what your problem with him is."

"When he stops being such a weirdo, perhaps we'll get along better," Sakura replied a bit jadedly.

Beside them at the table, Hinata concentrated on filling vials instead of adding to the conversation. She hadn't meant to slip up. Now that she didn't require Sakura's advice, she needed to avoid confessing that she'd run off in the last seven days and gotten married. It was a confidentiality that the Hokage had granted them, and until Kiba and she had worked it out themselves, she shouldn't chance anyone else learning about it. She trusted Sakura and Ino even more than Genma and Sai, but the less people who knew a secret the easier it was to keep. When prompted by Sakura once more, she repeated the reason Tsunade had given them, that Kiba and Sai had fought and she had been a part of it. Sakura seemed suspicious of this, but Ino accepted it at face value.

"Everybody loses their temper once in a while, even Hinata," she reasoned to the table at large, prepared to drop the matter.

"Yes, but to fight in a bar..." Sakura frowned, finished her latest injection, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, Hinata, but that just doesn't sound like you."

"F-father's also asked me to pick a marriage partner in seven days," Hinata added, changing the subject in a way that would make them believe that was her big worry after the mission. It wasn't a lie, either. She was worried and she needed a bit of feminine advice.

Immediately both Sakura and Ino became sympathetic. Most of her friends were aware of her impending marriage problem; it had come out at one of their get togethers a few months ago. As both girls with her had married for love, they were especially on her side in avoiding an arranged marriage. "Jerks, all of them," Ino declared righteously. "You should just disown yourself and come live with Chouji and me."

Sakura patted her arm before scooting closer and giving her an impromptu hug. "But why are they pushing so much?" she asked as she pulled away. "You're only twenty four. Kurenai-sensei was older when she had Koshou."

Hinata looked down at her hands, twisting a vial through her fingers. "I think the elders became tired of waiting," she admitted. Mostly, she thought it was tradition. Her father and uncle had been younger when they'd married. She'd bet her grandfather likely was, too.

"Hmm, what you need to do is perform a fait acompli," Ino said wisely. "Find somebody before they can get their wrinkled claws into you."

"Seven days is a pretty short timeline to do that in," Sakura added, and Hinata, whose pulse had sped uncomfortably at the idea, felt relief at the good sense in that comment. "But I agree that's a good idea."

"B-but I don't even know anyone-"

"Naruto," Sakura interrupted.

"Naruto," Ino seconded blandly. Her palms rubbed together as she schemed across the table. "We could strong arm him here, threaten him with ramen or something, and just get a little proposal out of him."

"I-I don't think that would be right." Hinata was looking worriedly between the two of them.

"No," Sakura agreed, "much as I like the idea. It's not a good idea to bribe your future husband into marriage."

"Oh? And I thought you got Kakashi-sensei to bend knee with the lure of live porn – oophf!"

The pink haired medic ignored her long-time friend as she struggled up from her fallen chair. "We're not going to do that, but it can't hurt to talk to him. I know there's always been something between you, maybe now is the perfect time to see if it turns into romance. It can't hurt to try," Sakura repeated when Hinata's mouth opened. "Otherwise you're going to be stuck with almost no choice at all."

"I know," Hinata replied after a moment. "But I haven't spoken to Naruto-kun about t-that since Pain was here."

"Are you scared?" Sakura asked, not unkindly. When the dark haired young woman looked away, she only nodded. "Well, I'll let you in on a secret. When I fell in love with Kakashi, I was scared, too. After Sasuke, I wasn't sure how to say what I felt and not get hurt. But when I finally told him, it turned out Kakashi was scared, too. There we were, both full of fear for months and doing neither of us any good. If Naruto turns out to be the idiot he's always played at all his life, it'll only hurt for a little bit, but if you never tell him it might hurt for your entire life. And with a bit of luck, you'll be the happiest of the three of us in a few months."

Ino, who by this time had regained her seat, was nodding encouragingly from the other side. Hinata smiled back. These were good friends she had. Shino's face popped up in her memory, followed by Kiba's. _You know I'll do whatever I can_. And he would, too. But with the memory of Kiba's face came the memory that maybe, just perhaps, he was in love with her. And as her cheeks heated, a garbled question tumbled out.

"B-but how do you know when you love someone?"

Ah, that wasn't what she meant to ask, Hinata winced in mortification. It was supposed to be 'how do you know when someone loves you?' but the words had slipped past her tongue before she could double check them. And by now both women were forming answers.

"Don't you know?" Sakura asked gently.

"It just permeates everything," Ino added robustly. "The entire world seems to be telling you 'love, love, love,' you were just too stupid to pay attention before." She frowned a bit. "Though Chouji always told me it was like his jutsu. That when you're in love it seems like something inside you is just burning up everything you have, until all you can think about is the person you love."

"You married a poet," Sakura announced with a touch of gracious irony.

Ino sniffed. "At least my husband doesn't have his nose permanently attached to an Icha-Icha book."

Sakura just grinned back wickedly. "Kakashi told me an hour spent with me was better than five with his favorite literature. I bet if I didn't work he'd give up the habit completely."

"Bull shit!" At that both the girls fell to laughing.

"You'll know," Sakura said finally, smiling back at Hinata. "It's different for everyone, but it'll strike you like lightning one day and you'll be certain of that like you've never been certain of anything before."

With this good advice, Hinata couldn't bring herself to ask her intended question, and so they returned to the chore before them and quickly finished the remaining vials before Sakura left for her hospital directors' meeting. Ino and Hinata gathered the bags together to drop off at the shinobi mission pharmacy. With a box in each of their arms, they wound their way to the far side of the hospital that faced the Hokage's tower.

"Oh, I'm beat," Ino announced when they emerged from the pharmacy. "I don't know how Sakura does it. Naruto might be aiming for the next hokage, but I'll confess, I think Sakura will have the job in the end. She can keep going long after the rest of us are in our graves. Don't let her know I said that," the blond added with a wink.

Hinata shared a kind, conspiratorial smile. It was hard work running a hospital. Tsunade had turned it over to Sakura at the end of her apprenticeship and Hinata knew she wouldn't have trusted it with just anybody. Placidly, she accompanied Ino out of the building and towards home, listening to her happy chatter about her young daughter.

"I left her with her grandparents this morning. Chouji's mom better not have stuffed her too much, we're having shabu-shabu tonight and she always insists on an equal amount of meat and vegetables."

"Was it hard, marrying one of your teammates?" Hinata asked, the remark bursting out of her on a sudden impulse. Of all her friends, Ino was the only one who had done so. Sakura didn't count, really.

Stopping mid-thought, Ino glanced over in surprise. "Hard?" she repeated, "Marrying Chouji?" She blinked for a moment, before her eyes widened slightly in comprehension and her lips slowly crept up into a knowing smile. She gave her answer as if imparting a confidential but important truth. "It was wonderful."

_Out there in the wilderness_

_you'll realize the truth:_

_Some fires will brightly race through you_

_but the slow ones last longest._

When she returned home it was to find Shino leaning against the gate wall with Akamaru sitting patiently beside him. The dog gave a happy wuff when he saw her and Shino glanced up. He raised a hand in greeting as she neared.

"Hey, what's up? We thought you'd be at home."

"I was helping Ino-chan and Sakura-chan," she replied honestly. "What are you doing here? I thought we aren't meeting up for practice again til tomorrow? I-I won't be able to do much until then."

"No, that's not it." One of Shino's hands came up to push his glasses more firmly up his face, hiding his eyes. It was a habit he displayed when telling a half-truth. Lies he could rattle out without blinking, but when the story got too near the facts he couldn't stop himself. It was a nervous tell that he had never broken. Hinata blinked in surprise. "They're having a small fair in town today, so we thought you'd like to come."

"T-the farmer's market?"

Now Shino looked uncomfortable. "We heard they might have a couple game stalls set up as well."

The village always set up a few areas for the local children to have fun on market days and this, Hinata realized, must be what Shino was referring to. It had been years since she had even stopped by to see the attractions. Shaking her head in disbelief, Hinata nevertheless remained quiet. She would go along, because suddenly it did sound like fun, but she wasn't sure what her long time teammate had in mind. Noticing the lack of plural, she looked up again. "Where's Kiba-kun?"

She could hear the frown in Shino's voice as he replied. "Inside. I don't know what's taking him so long if you're not home. He was supposed to come right out."

Curious, she stepped away towards the gate, peeking in through the open doorway at her house. There was no sign of Kiba anywhere, the front garden was quite deserted, and it looked as if a large portion of the household was gone as well. Her attention was distracted by a flutter of shades in a window on the second floor, a window two from the corner. Her window, she realized after a moment's calculation. What was someone doing in her room? Hinata wondered with dismay. Especially by that window. She'd left the box containing her secrets right below it.

"What are you lookin' at?"

The sudden voice startled her and Hinata let out a small squeak as she jumped in place. "M-my window," she replied thoughtlessly as a hand steadied on her shoulder. What was she doing, paying so little attention to her surroundings? Was she a kunoichi or not?

Looking up, she found Kiba beside her, following her line of sight to the window she had been staring at. A small frown touched his features as he inquired, "Did you need something?" The stark red triangles on his cheek stood out in the early afternoon sun. It may have been the lighting, but the left one looked just slightly darker than normal.

After a moment, Hinata replied. "No, I was just looking. Did you have trouble in the house?"

A wry grin answered her. "What? Was Shino getting impatient?" His hand came up and he hesitated only a fraction of a second before he ruffled her hair. "Come on. You coming with us?" At her nod, he turned and moved to lead the way. Akamaru trotted up as well, pausing to give her a friendly nudge with his shoulder before moving on to catch up with his partner. Shino trailed along after them and Hinata fell into step beside him.

"Why'd you decide to go to the market?" Hinata asked, mildly curious. The weekly Saturday affair was popular with Konoha housewives and chefs. It was not a place many shinobi frequented.

"Kiba felt you needed some fun," Shino replied thoughtlessly, then immediately busied himself with straightening his sunglasses.

"Kiba-kun did?" She asked, noting the ninja's sudden tension beside her. "Why?" Hinata continued after a moment.

"Intuition?" came the immediate reply.

But that wasn't it, Hinata understood. Shino had not lost his anxiety and his fingers were fiddling around his face again. This was what he had been nervous about at the gate as well. "H-how did Kiba-kun know I needed to get out?"

An exasperated "tch" emerged from Shino as he suddenly dropped his hand. "Your sister," he confessed, obviously out of patience with concealing the truth.

"My sister found you this morning?" she inquired with amazement.

"No, Kiba _asked_ your sister this morning." Hinata's wide eyes flew to the young man in front of them. He was walking with a steady lope, one hand buried comfortably in Akamaru's ruff and chatting to him as if they had no worries in the world. Kiba had approached her sister that morning to ask about her? Her teammates were both acquainted with her family but, besides stopping by to pick her up, they rarely interacted. When they did, it was Neji or her father they spoke to. Her sister, training with Anbu now, did not move in familiar enough circles. "I'm more amazed that she told him anything," Shino continued, unmindful of her silence. "He was rather rude about it. Lectured her for nearly ten minutes. After we finished up a chore for Yamato-san, he scampered over."

He'd come because he thought she'd be happier if she went out. With the choice of the papers waiting for her back in her room, Hinata knew he'd thought right. She smiled to herself in pleased joy as they approached the village gathering. "And he told you not to tell me," she surmised to Shino.

"Ah, well," the young man admitted a bit sheepishly, "I felt guilty for yesterday, so I agreed." A sigh left him. "And here I've gone and spilled all his secrets again."

Hinata's soft laugh drew Kiba and Akamaru's attention back to them. "So, what do you want to try out? I know they've still got the goldfish, but I think there's a ring toss over on the right as well."

"What are you, five?" Shino asked dismissively. Kiba responded with a rude gesture and a grin and soon the three of them were weaving between booths, a smiling ring of misplaced adults in a posse of children. Of all of them, Akamaru was the most popular as young boys and girls alike swarmed for the chance of a ride and to press against his soft fur. The large dog and Kiba obliged them in between knocking down bottles and sliding paper paddles unsuccessfully under fish. Shino had caught three fish and Hinata two by the time Kiba even managed one. Handing the bagged goldfish over, he petulantly accused the game of being rigged. They spent the next several minutes at a kunai throwing booth restoring his good humor and then another hour and a half touring the market and games.

While they enjoyed themselves, Hinata had noticed almost immediately that Kiba was purposefully acting as if nothing had happened. He had returned to their old camaraderie with such determination that his apprehension was almost palpable. Feeling this peace offering for what it was, a return to their younger, easy relationship, Hinata put forth just as much effort and within an hour the strain had almost disappeared. Both Shino and Akamaru seemed to notice no difference at all, and indeed if Hinata had spent this same afternoon with them a month ago, she would have thought everything was normal. But she was noticing now. Noticing what she had never realized but what must have always been there: the deferential treatment Kiba showed her. Where he played roughly with Shino and Akamaru, it contained more teasing joy when he turned his attention to her. His prizes, especially that big one for hitting the bell at the top of the strength test, if he didn't hand them off to the eager children surrounding them, always went to her. He picked her side consistently when she competed against Shino, though that could be because the two boys had always been competitive, and, while he didn't just let her win, he showed no ire when she trounced him at the ring toss. And when the children asked to see an adult ride Akamaru, he plucked her up with an easy grace and sat her elegantly across his best friend's back, laughing gaily while joking with the young kids that she was a princess and this was her most loyal steed.

Even Shino had smirked a bit at that one, but hidden behind the drape of her hair Hinata had blushed with a sudden awareness. Was this how it had always been? Why _had_ she never noticed?

But less than twenty minutes later her answer came striding up, along with a small group of her friends. Naruto was smiling widely when they came across each other at the outskirts of the market. "Hey, wanna join us for hot pot?"

"What, shabu-shabu?"Kiba asked back, the carrot stick he had bought to crunch on hanging out of one side of his mouth like a cigarette. Behind Naruto, Ino and her young daughter, Ageha, were among the people gathered and Hinata remembered that she had mentioned the event this morning. Kiba glanced back at Shino and her, raising an eyebrow. "Well?"

She nodded as Shino shrugged. "Why not?" the bug user had asked benignly.

"Alright then," Kiba agreed, turning back to the gathered group. Together they wound their way to the nearby restaurant, piling into a free corner and pulling a table up close to the booth.

"What took you guys so long?" came Sakura's voice from the booth. She stood up as the group arranged the seating. "I've only got an hour and a half for dinner."

"Sakura-chan," Naruto greeted happily. "We picked up a few more people on the way."

The young medic looked to the crowd and, among the familiar faces, Sai, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Lee, spotted Kiba, Hinata, and Shino in the background. "Alright," she mock sighed, "I suppose we can squeeze every one in." The smile on her face belied the resignment. Quickly she pushed Naruto into the booth. "Come on, I'm hungry. Sit down so we can order."

Obligingly Shikamaru, Lee, and Shino slid into the other side of the booth while the rest of the group began to find seats, but when Hinata pulled out a chair, Sakura quickly snagged her arm and shoved her in next to Naruto. The pink haired girl gave a discrete wink and Hinata had to fight a sudden blush of comprehension. But when Ino assigned Kiba to the last spot in the booth and did the same thing, she couldn't keep the red off her face. She hoped her two friends wouldn't begin to throw every available bachelor in front of her. Sai, who she would have expected a raised eyebrow from because of his knowledge of her ill-started marriage and what had caused it, didn't even bat an eye. At least when clearly iterated assignments from the Hokage were concerned, he was the perfect gentleman.

"Well," Ino started, seating the small, blond Ageha between Chouji and her, "do you think we should order two sets? One for each table?"

"Better make it three," Shikamaru reasoned without malice. "We've got more people."

"There are only two burners," Sakura put in. "We'll get two to start out with and the table who finishes first will get the third. Plus, I was hoping to get some sashimi before the pots came out."

"Eating for two these days?" Sai inquired with a smile across the table. "I thought you'd gained weight."

His chair rattled but remained upright. "Don't make me regret patching you up on the last mission, penis boy. I might not do it again." Sakura chided pleasantly. Naruto sniggered at that but Sai remained smiling. "Anyway, I know you eat just as much as Naruto. One of these days you'll be unable to wear that midriff baring shirt you like so much."

Naruto, who by this time had ditched his orange jumpsuit for an orange jacket in a style reminiscent of the fourth, grinned happily. "Nah, he'll wear that forever. It's like Kakashi-sensei's mask. It's _classic_ Sai."

"Hmm." But when Sai seemed disinclined to comment about his wardrobe and the waitress arrived, Sakura let the matter drop in favor of ordering. As the food began coming out, conversations ranged amongst the group. Chouji was helping his daughter with her dinner, but Ino and Sakura were talking with Sai about the recent rumors of Root's resumption. Lee had snagged both Shino and Kiba into a discussion about flowers of all things, Shino adding comments about apiology and Kiba the few medicinal things his sister had taught him from her veterinary practice. Shikamaru was trying to explain to Naruto the difference between a defensive initiative and arms stockpiling. Naruto, who was hoping to achieve Hokage within the next couple years, was paying close attention.

"So you let the other person know what you're doing when you set up all these major weapons at your borders?"

"Yes," Shikamaru replied. "You can either make a formal statement or let the information trickle out purposefully, but the potential enemy has to know what your weapon capabilities are."

Naruto scratched his cheek with a frown. "That seems kind of backwards. Aren't you supposed to keep your true strength more of a secret so the enemy won't be prepared?"

"That's right. Your full force you keep hidden, but any initial retaliation on the border you let people know about. I told you, it's a defensive strategy." By this time, Shikamaru had set down his chopsticks and was searching his pockets for a pen to scribble on his napkin.

"It's a deterrent," Hinata realized softly. Both young men glanced at her.

Shikamaru nodded, finally snagging a small pencil. "That's right. You want people to think twice before they come after you because you're going to do a lot of damage if they do." He began sketching the border of the Fire country.

"Oh!" The light had finally gone on for Naruto. "Like bug spray," he said, as if this resolved everything. "You lay a perimeter and any bug who comes across it is sure to come into your room half dead."

The Nara strategist across from him looked wry, but nodded. "That works."

"Thanks," Naruto said brightly, including Hinata in his acknowledgment. She blushed slightly at the attention.

"N-no problem, Naruto-kun."

By this time Lee had finished his discussion as well and turned with inquiry to the small drawing Shikamaru held in front of him.

"Shikamaru and Hinata-chan were just explaining defensive initiative to me," Naruto replied, piling more meat into their hot pot cheerfully. "Better watch yourself next time we spar."

The green beast of Konoha turned in surprise to her. "I didn't know you were an expert strategist, Hinata-chan."

"'Course she is," Kiba declared fondly as he swallowed. He smiled down at her before continuing. "Me and Shino would have been hopeless without her."

"I think we do alright," Shino defended mildly, scooping a mushroom out of the boiling liquid. "But I'd rather have her with us."

Blushing slightly, Hinata shook her head. "I-I'm the one who couldn't have done it without you two."

"Oh, don't go melodramatic on the rest of us at this table," Ino broke in, silencing most of the chatter and smiling even as her voice remained stern. "Or I'll feel the need to start weeping on Shika and Chouji here and neither of them would be the least sympathetic."

Shikamaru snorted. "The only times I've seen you cry, woman, are when you're three sheets to the wind, drunk as a skunk." He continued in a sharp tone to his best friend down the table. "And _don't_ enlighten me as to the occasions I'm missing." A sigh floated across his meal with the word "troublesome" and all of them laughed, Ino perhaps the loudest of all.

Chouji's arms plucked the drowsy form of his daughter off the nearby chair and settled her against his large chest before he turned to his wife. "How about some dessert to wrap up with?"

"Dessert? After _four_ hot pots? At least your daughter knows when to quit," came the quick remonstrance.

But Chouji took the comment without offense. "I'm not the one who spent the morning being spoiled silly."

"Oh? And you're going to waste your evening's share of spoiling here?" But Ino retrieved the waitress and ordered ice cream and the chatter resumed complacently.

Naruto, who had polished off his portion of the meal, pushed his bowl towards the center of the table with a decided thump. "I don't know about sentimental, but there were moments in my life where I really couldn't have made it without _any_ of you." His quick grin of goodwill made its way around the group of friends, but Hinata, who received it last, felt it particularly. Her heart sped a little with the thought of a particular time when she had done her best to save Naruto, and the words she had said at that time. The hope that flared in her chest blinded her to the rest of the people around her for a moment, but it was the hesitation, that strange new hitch in her normal life, that snapped her back to awareness.

She turned with unknown intuition to Kiba to find his arm half raised, hand hovering over her head in what she discerned to be his hair ruffling gesture of casual affection. But what struck her was his face, the expression frozen between yearning and understanding. And reflected in his eyes she realized what he must see, with her pressed against Naruto and smiling with her heart on her sleeve. Her own face must have reflected some of this new knowledge because he quickly forced a grin up and mussed her hair more vigorously than usual.

Then he turned and, it seemed almost purposefully, began to talk to Sakura.

And even though she spoke to Naruto, Lee, and Shikamaru for the rest of the meal the evening seemed far less bright than it had been.

_I'll tell you a secret,_

_the most important one I know:_

_Don't let go._

_Don't ever let go._

The next day passed smoothly, but still Hinata felt agitated. The morning's training meet up with Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru proceeded normally in a four-for-all hunt that had them matching up randomly as they met one another in an effort to practice stalking targets while remaining undetected. Hinata had run into Kiba twice, retreating into cover after both conflicts, and still the questions hadn't been asked. Because Shino would be gone by the time he returned, they wouldn't even be meeting this way for another week. She'd meant to ask them yesterday, but the opportunity had never arisen, and though there was plenty of opportunity now she was no longer ready for his answers, for his explanation of what had happened the night they had married.

Something had changed, maybe that afternoon when they had played like children, or perhaps at dinner when she'd found herself between her two constants, only one of which she'd ever noticed. Something had flipped upside down inside her, and she wasn't ready to embark on any emotional conflict until she figured out what it was.

That was why when she trudged home for the afternoon, Hinata took the box from beneath the window and traced the ornate patterns for nearly half an hour. She didn't open it, she didn't need to, but she couldn't seem to put it down. _How long?_ her heart seemed to ask. Six days? _How long?_ Seven? _How long?_ Twelve years? _How long?_

Forever?

With frustration, she tucked the container under her bed and then flopped on to it. Never before had time been such a pressure. Two palms pressed firmly against her closed eyes before she sighed. Wishing for time never worked.

After a short nap, she spent most of the afternoon with her sister, a rare occurrence. But it was peaceful and enjoyable and in the end exactly what she needed to distract her from the buzzing anxiety that lurked at the edge of every thought. Dinner was stilted but manageable and as Hinata sat by her window watching the rain pour down as she brushed her long hair out, listening to the gentle sway of the chimes in contrast with the violent weather outside, she felt the budding of a small optimism. Kiba left on his mission for Sand this evening. She had six days left. It wasn't the end of the world quite yet.

With the poor weather and a lack of anything she wanted to do inside, Hinata turned in early that evening. She'd been having restless dreams lately and a little extra sleep would do her no harm, she reasoned. Flicking out the light, she'd crawled gratefully into bed.

Less than two hours later she shot wide awake to the loud roar of thunder sounding above the roof and her name resounding in her ears. She blinked, confused and unsettled for a few moments, before glancing to her window, only to have her heart stop completely at the sight illuminated by a flash of lightning.

"Hinata!"

A large man was perched on her windowsill, tapping at the glass and calling her name. When her heart restarted itself by sheer force of will, Hinata fumbled for the kunai holster she had left on the nearby table.

"Hinata, it's me!" The tapping was more insistent now. Another crack of thunder interrupted the noise only briefly. "It's me, it's pouring, and I need the contract! Open up!"

Another burst of lightning blazed through the night and Hinata wished she was a person who cursed – now would be the perfect time to display her skill – as she recognized the figure: Kiba, hair matted down with rain and acting utterly ridiculous. Forgetting the kunais, she quickly got up and slid the window open.

"Thank god," the soaked man said as he hurriedly slipped inside. "I thought I'd be out there until the storm ended. By now the unit's probably already waiting for me. I sent Akamaru ahead so they would know I didn't just forget."

"Why didn't you just come through the front door?" Hinata asked, agitation mounting. Her windowsill wasn't that wide, and slick with water it could easily become a dangerous fall, no matter how acute the ninja balance was.

A poncho was draped near the open window and Kiba shook himself slightly, spraying water like a dog on the nearby furnishings. "I couldn't," he explained impatiently. "If I'd come knocking at the door, your family would want to know why I was here and I couldn't really answer that."

"Why _are_ you-"

"Shh!" The sharp interjection, along with the fingers that suddenly pressed insistently across her mouth, immediately halted her question. Though the next crash of thunder nearly deafened her, she had recovered to hear the creak of floorboards outside her room before the knock at the door sounded.

"Hinata?" Hanabi's tired voice came. "Are you awake in there?"

Hinata's pale eyes flew to Kiba's equally pale face but they both remained motionless as her sister knocked again. The seconds seemed interminable before the soft shuffle of slippered feet retreated down the hall.

"Your walls must be as thin as paper," Kiba whispered in frustration.

"It's an old house," Hinata replied just as quietly, pressing her lips together over the moisture his hand had left. "_Why_ are you here?"

The shinobi in front of her blinked before straightening. "The marriage contract. I need to have it with me if I'm going to get it annulled in another country. I'm sorry I forgot to ask this morning. I'm lucky I remembered that when I was packing everything up an hour ago."

"Oh," Hinata replied simply. She was surprised to find herself subtly disappointed. For a moment, when he had crawled in through the window, she had thought that perhaps he'd come to do something impulsive, something as wild as the storm he'd just escaped, something like what had happened in the forest training ground. But that was a silly thought. She shook herself back from her mental wanderings. "Okay, hold on."

Returning to her bed and crouching down, she quickly located the box and pulled it forward. Flicking the latch open, she lifted the lid and retrieved the scroll. She glanced back at Kiba and in that instant another explosion of white back-lit him like a star against the frame. It took a few dizzy blinks before she stood and dropped the weighty contract into his hand. The boom of thunder seemed to make the action momentous.

"Let me kiss you," came the sudden whisper amongst the untamed sound of the raindrops outside.

"W-what?" She had forgotten that the lightning would illuminate her face just as much as his outline. Flushing, she was certain he'd read the urge in her eyes.

But Kiba seemed to think she needed convincing. "This is the last day we'll be married. Married and together, I mean. After this we'll go back to being friends. I-I won't even touch you again if you don't want," he promised recklessly, betraying the desperate craving. "Just... let me kiss you now."

She didn't even take the time to consider his logic. The memory of him seating her on Akamaru's back and calling her a princess flashed before her eyes. "Okay."

"Please," Kiba added anyway, deaf in his urgency. It took a moment before her agreement had sunk in. "...what-?"

But by then Hinata had already taken the initiative. Grasping the light leather lapels of his jacket, she leaned up gingerly and softly pressed her mouth to his. It felt like a kiss goodbye. To childhood, to friendship, to what might have been, maybe to all of them at once.

Then Kiba pressed back, and it wasn't a goodbye at all. A small growl resounded through him, and she shivered as his left hand skimmed her chin before he tilted it decidedly and replaced his lips against hers. The gentle fingers firmed as they trailed up her cheek and slipped into her hair, and then she lost track of them entirely as one of his canines found her bottom lip and began worrying it deliciously. This thing that they were kindling between them was melting her reserve like chocolate, submerging her better reasoning. She shouldn't have kissed him. She wasn't sure how she felt about Kiba and she was certain he liked her more than he had ever let on. She shouldn't have kissed him. She had always loved Naruto.

Drawing back for air, Hinata found her arms had wound themselves across Kiba's shoulders without her awareness. They breathed raggedly for a moment in darkness before the last ounce of her reason drowned. Her hands, linked firmly behind his head, pulled him down as her tongue lapped at the raindrops that had gathered at the corner of his mouth. Kiba's lips swallowed her own as he returned in ravenous pursuit. Hinata quaked at the feeling, her insides jittering in delight. She should have kissed him years ago.

Having been out in the rain he should have been freezing against her, but the heat from the firefight they were skirmishing through was burning away any chill. Her fingers were inside his jacket now, and he was whispering her name every time they broke for a sustaining gasp, but it wasn't until she tumbled back against her mattress that she realized they had moved. Either he had stepped forward or she had stepped back, but they must have done both in some kind of instinctual synchronization. Then his mouth was at the base of her neck and she didn't care. He bit lightly and she arched and the world around them exploded.

It was only after he pulled away with a jerk that Hinata realized it must have been another lightning strike that had raced across the night. As her vision readjusted to the dark, she stared up at him to discover Kiba staring back at her. The fire between them cooled and she found the heat scorching her chest was the edge of his hand, the nook between his forefinger and thumb, pressed tightly to the bottom swell of her breast.

"I'll get the marriage annulled and be back in four days." The quiet announcement only shook her slightly out of her reverie. Her lips were throbbing. She was sure he could _feel_ her heart galloping.

As if the wild beat woke him, Kiba stole his hands away and snatched the scroll off the bed from where it lay beside her.

"Four days," he repeated to her silence. Those fingers that had held her both softly and demandingly idled at her forehead, but he didn't touch her and the smile that twisted his lips was impossible to read in the dark. "Trust me."

Then, with a speed she knew she didn't possess at the moment, he'd disappeared, the poncho gone from its heap by the window, and the only thing left in the room was puddles. But though the room grew chilly, the heat imprinted on her chest lingered. With a sigh, Hinata rose and dragged the window closed. For tonight, at least, she wouldn't worry about the consequences of following her recklessly wild impulse.

_That's right:_

_look sharp._

_Because it will take sharp eyes_

_to find what you want._

The morning was not as full of recriminations as she would have thought two days ago. Mostly, Hinata realized, because she was too confused. And, if she were being honest with herself, because it had been too sublime. Kisses were wonderful, kissing Kiba was wonderful, and it shook her as it elated her in equal measure. Just what kind of person was she, that she could kiss someone who wasn't the one she loved with so much sensual enjoyment? The thought unsettled her most of the morning and when she left the house it was to escape her thoughts as much as to avoid her father. Discussing the looming arranged marriage on top of what had just happened would have been too much.

Instead she wandered over to the hospital. She'd never trained as a medic, mostly because when Ino and Sakura went to learn from the Hokage, her father had begun seriously teaching Neji and she the secrets of the Byakugan. But the hospital always needed extra hands from volunteers, and the work was demanding enough to be distracting. After speaking to the attendant and receiving a smock, she set to preparing emergency room kits with determination.

It was how Sakura found her hours later that afternoon. The pink haired woman entered the room with no announcement and had obviously been staring at her for a while before she finally spoke up. "I think if those pillows get any more fluffing they're going to lose their stuffing," she said with some bemusement.

Surprised, Hinata glanced back towards the doorway then back down at the pillow between her palms. She honestly couldn't remember how long ago she'd picked it up and it was indeed looking worse for her attentions. Hastily, she set it back onto the stack she had just covered with pillowcases and pushed the overfilled cart to the wall. It would be taken up with the fresh laundry to one of the units and used when the housekeeping staff remade beds. "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

"It's okay. The pillows can take it." Shifting her stack of paperwork against her hip, Sakura smiled at her. "So what's up? You look like you're in a good mood." Her expression became one of suppressed excitement. "Don't tell me... you've got good news for me?"

A good mood? Hinata lifted one hand to her face, as if checking herself for a cheerful grin. She looked to be in a good mood? And just what in her life recently could prompt that? she thought sardonically. She was her family's latest project. She had four suitors to choose between in five days. She was a bride of eight days. She was the wife of a man she had never thought to marry. She was in love with Kiba's kisses. Flushing suddenly, she shook her head. "No. I just wanted to get out of the house." Where had that last thought come from?

Was it the truth? Was that why she didn't feel so bad about last night?

Sakura sighed in commiseration. "Understandable." But she perked up as a new thought occurred to her. "Hey, have you spoken with Naruto yet?"

Wordlessly Hinata shook her head and followed when Sakura began to lead the way out of the room and back into the hall. They were in the basement, where the supplies were stored but also where the older medical records were kept. Sakura turned in that direction as she walked.

"Why not?" she asked back, almost absent-mindedly as she pushed open the large door into the filing room. "I'll tell you what," the hospital director continued brightly as she set the stack in her arms down in front of the archivist sitting at the small desk at the entrance, "I'll set it up so you can meet with him tomorrow!" Sakura glanced back with a pleased expression. "How about it? I'll even get him to dress up a bit if you want, he still owes me a favor from the last time I treated him to ramen. It can be a date if you wish."

Hinata colored instantly, all thoughts of Kiba flying out of her head. "O-oh, no, t-that's not necessary. I w-wouldn't want to impose-"

"Hinata," Sakura interrupted, turning firmly to her as the archivist wandered off with the latest deposit. The pink haired woman's hands were resting on her hips in a manner that brooked little argument. "This isn't the time to think about my feelings. You're running out of time and we, all of your friends, we're worried that you're going to end up unhappy. It's now when you've got to stand up and say what you really want. Don't let people just run all over you."

There was an irony inherent in that statement, Hinata knew. Did Sakura even realize what she had said?

"And don't look at me like that," the woman before her continued with a huff, informing Hinata that she was clearly aware of the irony as well. "I'm doing this with your best interests in mind, and I'll back down if it's not what you want." She paused, then let her arms drop. "So? Should I speak to Naruto today?"

Slowly, Hinata nodded back. After all, Sakura was right. If not now, when would she finally manage to get the courage up to speak to Naruto? It was just that she was nervous, after all the last time it hadn't gone... The Hyuuga heir swallowed. "Y-yes, please," she stated, resolution firm. She was running out of time. She was down to five days. And Kiba couldn't be the only one working hard on their future. Her future. _Her future_, Hinata corrected to herself. Naruto was not Kiba's worry.

Sakura smiled triumphantly. "Alright! I'll make sure to tell him this evening. I'll have him meet you outside the bookshop at, oh, how about one thirty? There's a nice tea shop nearby there that you can go to and talk."

Caught up in the whirlwind of plans, Hinata nodded. After five minutes of encouragement and even a few seductive hints from Sakura, the young woman whirled off again after a noise from her beeper caught her attention and Hinata went back to the volunteer center at the hospital. She helped out with a few more chores that they needed, then retreated to the Hyuuga compound, feeling differently but no more at ease than she had earlier that day. Speaking to Naruto. Perhaps she had been hasty in telling Sakura to go ahead and set up a meeting for them. Her heart wasn't prepared for this at all!

On the way in through the main hallway she bumped into Neji, and his quick hands caught her shoulder to steady her.

"Hinata," his quiet voice greeted her.

Smiling a bit back, Hinata greeted him in return with a soft, "Hello," and was about to move on when his fingers at her shoulder tightened. Her curious eyes rose to meet his narrowed ones.

"W-what is it?" she finally asked when her cousin continued to remain silent, his expression tense but inscrutable. It was always unnerving when Neji regarded her seriously, mostly because she remembered the unhappy atmosphere that had been between them as children and not because he had been cruel to her since her first chunnin exams. When he had first reprimanded her with the same air for not being careful enough during training she had been thoroughly shocked.

But Neji, when he finally spoke, did not bring her to task about anything. Instead he asked, very simply. "Have you spent any time evaluating the choice of suitors the elders have assembled?"

"I-I," Hinata stumbled, surprised. The Hyuuga compound had been conspicuously silent on the topic of her impending marriage arrangement since the disaster of the dinner she'd run from a few nights ago. Feeling her mood sink and her expression begin to shutter, Hinata took a step backwards. "I've b-been thinking about it seriously. I-I plan to make a decision before the d-deadline."

"That decision," Neji began as he dropped his hands, but then his brow wrinkled in seeming frustration as he puzzled out how to continue. It was such an odd expression for her always extra prepared cousin that Hinata gazed back with amazement until a sharp look entered his eyes and he turned an almost glare towards her. "Your future is not something you should let the clan decide. So far they have shown an incompetence for doing so."

The young Hyuuga heir blinked. Neji… was on her side? "B-but my father-"

"Your father," Neji broke in before slowing the pace of his words. "Your father is sometimes too like my father."

Still Hinata couldn't help staring at him. What a statement for Neji to make. It was only when her normally reserved cousin glanced around did she realize that they were having this conversation in the middle of the Hyuuga compound, where she was being pressured to comply. There was currently no one around, but she felt her own expression compose itself even as Neji straightened and resumed his aloof air.

"Think about what you want carefully," he continued quietly after a moment. "_No one_ in this family should be able to determine your life, and I will refuse to acknowledge your progress if you allow them to do so."

Hinata's head jerked up as if she had been slapped with the words but Neji's face remained placid. Over the years after the family reconciled with its branch, her father and Neji had been her primary tutors at home. They had grown into what Hinata would call a tentative friendship, and in the last years it had been Neji, more than her father, who had helped her to perfect her Byakugan. For him to refuse to acknowledge that was similar to him casting her off. Stunned, she remained rooted to the spot as he shook his head and began to move past her.

"And tell your friends to stop lecturing me about the family. I'm certainly not the one who came up with this nonsense."

Soft footsteps barely made a sound as Neji left her alone in the entranceway, to suffer the surging press of two ultimatums, one unspoken, one not. To marry, to choose her destiny. And tomorrow she would speak to Naruto.

Glancing down at her hands, which had always seemed too small to hold on to anything she wanted even if she had the courage to reach for it, Hinata watched as she, shakily at first but with firming purpose, shaped her fingers into the pose she had learnt for the eight trigrams sixty-four palms technique. Neji had taught her this, she remembered absently. Her hands tensed in memory of the force that had come from it. Whose ultimatum would she fall to? they seemed to ask. Hinata let her arms drop as she looked in the direction of her room.

Would she fall to any?

That afternoon, for the first time in days, she removed the pages of applicants for her hand in marriage from the box beneath her bed, sat on the floor with them spread in front of her, and thought seriously about her future.

_Memories are slippery things._

_Bring them out like fine wine_

_and reminisce the resplendence._

_But don't drown._

At the small shrine on the outskirts of the shopping district of Konoha, dressed in an elegant purple and white kimono that Hinabi had given her for her last birthday, Hinata sat perched on a stone bench waiting idly for the man of her childhood dreams to show up. It had been nearly thirty minutes already, but, well, Hinata had come early and Sakura had warned her that Naruto tended to show up late. "Never too late," Hinata had replied easily to that and Sakura had just smiled a little wryly in response. A group of small children ran by laughing, two tiny bells tied to the belt of the first one in a game that would be repeated in a more serious way once they grew older and participated in shinobi training outside the academy.

Glancing down at her snowy white socks inside her geta, she wriggled her toes a bit and let the wind tickle her hair against her check, remembering that day nearly nine years ago when she'd been stronger than she ever thought possible and faced off against Pain before firmly declaring her love for Naruto. Sometimes she forgot that she had been able to do that, to feel enough self-confidence to stand up and face two fears at once. It was important, she knew, to remind herself of that occasionally. Especially when, only two days after the Pain attack, she had found Naruto on his old swing, swaying next to the destroyed academy building, and had asked-

"Yo! Hinata!"

Glancing up, Hinata spotted a cheerful blond ninja quickly striding her way. His voice gave him away before she could make out the huge grin on his face. Naruto met her next to the old lantern as she stepped away from the bench.

"Hey! You look good. Sakura-chan warned me that this would be a dressed up kind of outing." The smile he wore only quirked slightly as he tugged at the high collar of his formal shinobi robes. He looked similar to an old painting that Hinata had seen in the Hokage's Tower of the Forth, with his long coat and polished outfit. "I thought she might have been getting revenge on me for a while. I have owed her for that ramen since February and this shirt keeps trying to choke me."

"I-it looks very nice on you, N-naruto-kun," Hinata stuttered out, feeling her anxiety flare up again as he stopped fiddling with his outfit and instead turned more firmly towards her.

"Where did you want to go today?"

The young Hyuuga heir blinked. "S-sakura-chan didn't tell you?"

The fox lines on his face stood out more sharply as his head tilted to the side in bemusement. "She really didn't tell me anything. Just told me to be at her place at eleven a.m. sharp, then stuffed me into these clothes before I could blink twice. She said we'd be even if I met you here today." The beginnings of a pout began to hover around the corners of his mouth. "Kakashi-sensei kept laughing at me from the kitchen."

"Um," Hinata commented unhelpfully. The dynamics of Sakura's closest relationships were often strange, but anyone who questioned them, especially her marriage, usually ended up with a fist in some valuable region of their body. Brushing it aside, after all, the pink haired medic had been the one to help set this up in the first place, Hinata glanced away and down the hill at the shopping district that stretched out before them in the bright noon sun. "W-would you like to get tea, N-naruto-kun? There's a nice café two blocks north…"

Naruto turned to follow her gaze to the small restaurant, then smiled brightly back at her. "Sure!"

With a short stroll, his jaunty, hers cautiously hopeful, and a quick statement to the hostess at the door, they were swiftly seated at a small table. Hinata ended up only ordering a green tea, too nervous to eat, but Naruto more than made up for it, asking for most of the different petite deserts to be brought out.

As the waiter left, he rubbed his hands together. "Man, I don't even know what half of those are. Guess we're going to have fun trying them, huh?" His bright grin, so infectious, tugged at her heart. "So, what did you need help with?"

Taking a deep breath, Hinata hid her shaking hands beneath the table. "I-I need to talk with you, Naruto-kun."

Straightening up in response, Naruto gazed back at her seriously. "About what?"

And, oh, she'd always appreciated that trait about him, that when matters were important he would display that core of gold that she knew he always had. It was seeing that, ironically, that made her remember and hesitate. "I… I need to get a present for Sai-kun's birthday."

"Huh?" Naruto asked back, good natured even as he laughed a little self-consciously. Hinata felt herself sink into her chair, but knew that she couldn't bring herself to declare herself again, not yet, at least not until after the meal. "I mean, I guess I could come up with some ideas, but I'm not the best person for this. Did Kiba ever tell you about the time I bought him flea dip for _his_ birthday? I thought I was being considerate, but he nearly bit me."

Hinata softly joined in his laughter even as she felt the time slipping through her fingers. Only a few more minutes…

"And Ino-chan? She terrorized me for months when I bought her that stuffed pig. How was I to know that that nickname was only okay coming from Sakura-chan?" Naruto joked, warming up to his subject. "And I'm not even going to tell you about that time I got Kakashi-sensei hair dye to help him look younger."

Their food came as Naruto was puzzling over Sai's likes and trying to give her pointers, and the rest of the meal progressed over the next half hour as Naruto threw out suggestions between trying beautiful foreign desserts and offering her bites. When they finished, Hinata settled the bill – she _insisted_, she told Naruto, since she had been the one to request his company – and they strolled out on to the street.

"Do you want to go now to look for that gift? I think they sell stomach warmers three shops down."

Slowly, Hinata shook her head. As much as she dreaded losing their current relationship, the time had come to face the answer to her feelings. Wasn't this part of the courage she so wanted to emulate? Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her nerves as best she could, then plowed on. "N-no. Why don't we go towards the academy? I want to see the swing."

Naruto turned a puzzled expression to her, but nevertheless complied. "Alright. But do you mind if I undo the top buttons on this shirt?" His quick fingers flicked the three upper closures open as he turned to lead the way back to the site of their earliest trials and success. Trailing slightly behind him, Hinata watched her hands for a moment before smiling gently to herself. Hadn't she come so far? She would conquer this hurdle.

When they reached the small park, Naruto strode towards the small swing with a fond grin. "Ah, still here like always." He reached out to touch the rope with a sentimental air. "You know this was still standing after the village was destroyed. What a tough little guy."

"I know," Hinata said quietly, watching him. This was, after all, where she had met him all those years ago, so shortly after Pain's invasion, so shortly after her declaration. But the past could not be her support nor her barrier now. "Naruto-kun," Hinata called, and for once didn't stutter on his name. She watched instead as he glanced up and smiled back at her.

"What's up?"

"I need to speak with you." And she held her shoulders back and stood properly as she said it, heels demurely together, hands clasped, kimono laying without a wrinkle. Her mother would have smiled with soft pride at the sight.

His blond head tilted slightly. "Not about Sai's present?" At her nod, he laughed, "I figured. It's kind of weird to come to me with my track record in that area." But his expression grew more serious as he took in her determined stance. "What's wrong, Hinata-chan?"

"Naruto-kun, I love you."

He hesitated, for just a brief second, but in that hesitation Hinata had her answer. Even when he smiled back at her, even when he reached out to grasp her shoulder, she knew the words he would say, could mouth them as they emerged, though she fought to keep her face placid, a facet of pride, because it was the same response she'd gotten years ago, in front of this very swing. "I'm happy. I love all my friends."

Her heart had beat once and then hidden, all those years ago, under the same pretense he was using, willful misunderstanding of her intention. She'd hugged her heart back to herself and answered with a kind smile that, "T-the village appreciates you a lot, N-naruto-kun."

But this time she was facing the future head on, and could not leave possibilities entrenched in such ambiguities.

"As… as more than a friend, Naruto-kun."

The smile in front of her slipped, as she had hoped it wouldn't and feared it would, and grew into something more regretful and melancholy. "I'm sorry, Hinata-chan."

Her heart broke a little in that moment, and the tears that she was refusing to cry pierced the soft inner flesh with a sharp, brief intensity, but the love that she possessed for this boy, this boy who had grown up but still valued his friends so much that he would cross countries, climb mountains, fight impossibilities to keep them, this boy who would never let their friendship crumble even if he couldn't return her feelings, that love allowed her to find the compassion that she needed to smile softly in return. "It's okay, Naruto-kun. I-I just wanted to tell you. But I love you as a friend more."

After a moment, he reached out with his other arm and pulled her forward, hugging her tight. "Aa. Me, too. Me, too," he repeated with another squeeze. They stood there for a moment, quietly, before Naruto bumped her head with his chin. "Hey, you sure you don't want to get that stomach warmer for Sai? I mean, he is getting older and we can get him one with some kick ass design."

The unexpected laugh huffed out of her between them, and Naruto looked down at her with a quirked mouth as he backed up. "You okay?"

As firmly as she could, Hinata nodded. "I-I'm fine," she replied quietly. Tipping her head, she added. "You can tell Sakura-chan that you're even now."

The young shinobi hesitated at this. "Are you sure you don't need anything else? I mean, I got all dressed up, so if something fancy needs to be done…"

Smiling, Hinata shook her head. "No, thank you. I-I just needed to sort a few things out, Naruto-kun. And you've been quite helpful with Sai-kun's gift ideas."

"Alright," Naruto finally relented with a sigh. "Want me to walk you home?"

Again, Hinata gave a negative response. "No, thanks. I'm headed to Kurenai-sensei's house next." And with a final assurance and a wave, she watched the perpetually cheerful, perpetually confident young man that she had always admired depart.

Reaching out to the rope swing, Hinata slowly let herself sink into the seat. Her first love had just ended. Not, in fact, surprisingly, if she were to be honest with herself. She heaved a couple unhappy laughs before pressing her forehead into the rope and letting a few of the tears she had held back before finally fall. She'd denied the answer she'd received from him nine years ago as long as she could, but she'd known, deep down, that Naruto and she were probably not going to work out in the way she wanted. And yes, she knew that she perhaps admired him more than she loved him, as Genma had previously implied, and that never made the healthiest of relationships, but still that love had been there. Powerful enough to see her through nine more years of uncertainty. She'd needed to hear his whole answer, even if it hurt, even if she sat here crying by herself after hearing it, because without it she'd always wonder. What if he just didn't have the guts to confess back to her? What if she'd mistaken his words and missed a bigger meaning? What if it simply was the wrong time?

But now, well… closure hurt, but it would heal, and a part of her had been preparing to patch up and move on.

But not quite yet. Swinging slowly back and forth, Hinata tipped her head back and let the rest of the tears fall.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun, for being honest."

_Growing up wasn't easy_

_in that house, was it?_

_But then neither_

_is growing young._

The trip back to the Hyuuga compound was long and slow. Not due to depression and regret, though Hinata felt that they perhaps would not have been remiss after what she had experienced earlier that day, but instead because, after her tears had come to an end and the swing stilled with the lack of her little shivers of unhappiness, she'd sat there in that old Academy yard and thought. She broke down the realities of her current existence into small mental blocks until they were, if not easily, at least surmountable. Strings of plans were foggily forming into something doable with every breath. She'd stood and walked slowly to Kurenai's house as she had said she would and selfishly basked in her old sensei's kind and understanding comfort for nearly an hour, pretending to be the child she knew she was no longer, and then moved on: Winding, the long way, through detours and routes that had witnessed tiny monuments of her youth, all the way back home, and thinking every step of the way.

She could do this, Hinata thought to herself as she stood before the large wooden gate. Was she not the same girl who had confessed to Naruto not hours ago? Wasn't she the kunoichi that the village felt confident to send on so many missions? Wasn't she Hyuuga Hinata, cousin to Neji, sister to Hanabi, daughter of Hiashi, and ultimately heir?

Wouldn't her friends back her up no matter what? She could feel their ghostly, unspoken but unwavering, presence at her back, a figment of her imagination but one that she knew they would make true if needed without hesitation. Ino's bright laugh and the echo Sakura's fist smacking her own palm existed there, the sounds bell-clear, Shikamaru's calculating gaze and Choji's grin would follow, as well as Sai's ready brush, Tenten's loud encouragements, Lee's forthright thumbs up, and Naruto's untarnished belief. And, as always, Shino, Akamaru, and Kiba, who would be right beside her. The last would throw his arm casually across her shoulders, stare up at the building before them, and ask his question with a tone of unwavering acknowledgement.

_You going to do this?_

Yes, Hinata thought, she was.

Throwing her shoulders back, she pushed back the door and strode in to the compound. A few members of the family looked up briefly at her entrance, but stopped what they were doing when she walked past with a decisive gait. She could feel them glancing at each other before slowly coming to follow her, but she didn't look back.

Instead she pushed forward, opening the doors to the largest training room. She found there Hinabi with a few of her more distant cousins. Her sister glanced up with cool inquisition.

"Yes?"

There was a moment when her heart flapped in her chest like a wild, terrified bird and Hinata was almost certain that she would fail, staring back into those cool, white eyes. But Kiba's support lingered over her as a protective shroud even now – _"__You'll be free, in every sense of the word, to give them your reply"_ – so instead Hinata took a deep breath, stood firm, - _"And if you want to tell them to go to hell, well, I'll be right there beside you_" – and announced clearly, "I'm calling a meeting with the elders in one hour. Please inform father."

_What kind of princess will you be?_

_The kind, reticent, shy one?_

_Or maybe_

_the one you always dreamt?_

They stood gathered before her in the main hall exactly as she had requested when Hinata joined them sixty minutes later, the elders who had bullied her father and her uncle, who had bullied Neji, who were trying to bully her. She could see her more immediate family interspersed among them, her father towards the middle, Hanabi at the back. Neji stood apart, at the foot of an old staircase, his arms crossed as he watched her mount the small dias at the head of the room with an impassive gaze.

Hinata had spent the hour prior in her room, covering the signs of her tears with cosmetics, brushing her hair, and straightening her clothes, not because she felt the vanity would help her through the meeting she had requested but because Ino had once admitted to her that the repetitive, girlish actions could be soothing when in the middle of a mission and you had no control over anything else that was happening. And as the household had bustled into activity after her words, that was how Hinata had felt: No longer in control of the chaos she had set free.

But she couldn't afford to show it in front of the people trying to determine her future. Neji had taught her that, to bluff control of his world by being firmly in control of his emotions and actions, his quietest but most impactful lesson. Instead she stood up there and spoke to them firmly, evenly, exuding a careful composure even as the rest of her life depended on her words.

She had reviewed the bridegroom candidates and come to a decision. She would not be marrying any of them.

_Impossible!_ they said. _It will be the end of the clan if you do not have children!_ they almost squawked. _If you do not, if you do not, if you do not,_ they prophesized like terrified hens at her words. And in growing refrain the answering mandate, _you must, you must, you must._

She would not, Hinata repeated firmly. She was one of two children to her father. Neji was a prodigy, she reminded. The Hyuuga would not become a weak clan in their generation, nor even the generations that followed.

_But!_ Came the almost anguished cry.

Hinabi had smiled a wry and not entirely friendly smile, a rare and hard won expression, and left.

_The reputation of the clan is now resting upon a decision, _they murmured.

As the next head of the clan, Hinata assured them she would not allow any harm to come to the Hyuuga name due to her decision. A politely worded refusal could be given to each contender's family, a no different ending than three of the four would have experienced regardless. And in the future, it would be wise to obtain Hinata's opinion _before_ promises like these were made.

_Promises!_ the clan nearly huffed out. _What promises were made? Only invitations…_

At the back of the room, Neji gave a short bow, full of respect, and retreated.

"Enough," finally came her father's voice, and the room grew quiet as the current head addressed his heir. He'd remained quiet until now, but Hiashi's expression implied he'd been paying careful attention. "Hinata," he addressed.

The young woman steeled herself and managed to keep her voice from quavering. "Yes?"

Evaluating her carefully, he finally asked, "Does this mean you have another candidate in mind?"

Five days ago she would have admitted fearfully that she was already married and the point was moot, five hours ago she would have shyly said she wished to marry Naruto, but now Hinata could be fully honest and answer the question as it had been posed. "No."

A hundred nervous heartbeats passed before he spoke again. "Do you intend to marry in the future?"

_Do you intend to marry at all?_ she could almost feel the rest of the clan echo. And it took her a long time to find the response to that, not because it was difficult or because she was unsure, but because she was unwilling to sacrifice the ground she had gained in this declaration so far by inviting future interference. "Yes. B-but I will marry for myself. The clan's future will never be dependent upon it."

They were bold words in a family whose precedence in the world was based upon a genetic ability, but her father's mouth quirked up just slightly, the beginnings of a proud smile that was quickly reigned back into reserved observation. She stared as he gave his reply. "If so, then I fail to see the purpose of an arranged marriage at all."

And with that there was nothing left for the elders to say. They dispersed as Hinata announced the end of the interview, talking among themselves of the arrangements to be made with the candidates' families in the other villages but without remonstrance of their young heir. Hinata had called them to heel, but Hiashi had defanged them. The truth of that action, the truth of the affection it implied still resided with her, the truth of her own ability to stand up for herself and declare her wishes - an ability that was not inconsistent, was not something beyond her reach, an ability that would remain hers as long as she had the confidence to face her fears and nervousness – rang through her like a gong and shook her to the core. It echoed what she had perhaps realized before but forgotten amidst the uncertainties and setbacks of life. She wouldn't always win, but that didn't mean she shouldn't fight.

Stepping down from the dais with relief, Hinata watched in bemusement as her father left as silently as both her sister and her cousin, and wondered to herself if she had surprised him or instead he, her, more in the past half hour.

_When birds sang of freedom_

_they told you it would be glorious._

_But what is glory_

_alone?_

The next two days passed slowly for Hinata. First she met with the commiseration and amazement of Sakura and Ino, who were once again filling chakra vials at the hospital, this time with the company of Shizune.

Sakura had stood when she entered and hugged Hinata impulsively. "Sorry. I'm so sorry," she mumbled, squeezing tight for a moment before letting go. "I swear, when Naruto told me, I threatened to give him a third eye so maybe he could see clearly." Evidently the blond had returned to Sakura after speaking with Hinata at the Academy. An action he likely now regretted.

Shaking her head, Hinata gave a little rueful smile. "It's alright. It's better that I spoke with him. Otherwise I would have never known and always wondered if we could be together."

The pink haired woman grimaced. "Still. I shouldn't have pushed so much, and I'm sorry for that."

As they took their seats at the table, both Ino and Shizune made supportive remarks as well, the blond also looking remorseful. Hinata reassured them as best she could as she began filling the glass vials and then, when the pile was looking larger and her strength beginning to wane, she managed to share her tale of triumph over the Hyuuga clan.

All three of the other women stared back at her with amazement, before Ino managed a stunned laugh.

"Oh ho! So you gave the old cats a taste of their own medicine and started bossing them around?" The grin that accompanied this question was particularly toothy. "Good job! 'Bout time they started to show you the respect you deserve."

Sakura also wore a pleased smile. "Congratulations. That's the way to do it." Her expression grew sharp. "Who needs Naruto anyway? Kunoichi can certainly solve their problems without men."

A little answering laugh emerged from Shizune. "The sound advice of two married women. Take note of that, Hinata-chan, before you start to follow it."

Hinata's gaze riveted to Shizune at the words and she barely paid attention to Ino's offended "Hey!" and Sakura's sniffed "Kakashi knows damn well I can put a hole in him without blinking." In that moment she remembered that Shizune _knew._ About her marriage to Kiba and about the possibly horrendous situation that could have exploded if her clan discovered that marriage midst trying to force her into another one. Casually, carefully, the Hokage's assistant winked. "But I agree, it's good that you were able to fight for the freedom to choose."

Watching the older woman, Hinata wondered at that moment how much she and Kiba had truly been left on their own. Would the Hokage have intervened before something calamitous happened if it appeared as if they couldn't have handled it? She doubted Tsunade-sama would have left the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka to throw the village into chaos as they sorted out the mess their offspring had gotten into. Shizune's gaze remained enigmatic as she returned to the job before her.

Sakura at this time had recovered her composure and was back to filling the emergency kits as well. She looked thoughtful as she packed another cloth bag. "Shizune's right, you are now free to choose."

"Watch out, Hinata," Ino commented in a soft voice, "Forehead here's gone into matchmaker mode."

The hospital director rolled her eyes. "Says the kunoichi who set me up with a million dates after Sasuke left."

"I'd hardly call seven a million," came the exasperated reply. "But I'm just saying that you should leave it up to Hinata decide if she wants to date for a bit. She did just confess to Naruto yesterday."

Again Sakura's expression morphed into one of embarrassed regret and Hinata had to repeatedly reassure her that everything that had happened with Naruto had been for the best. In the young Hyuuga heir's opinion, Ino wasn't much better on the matchmaking front, as shortly after peace returned to the table she slyly commented that Kiba was due back tomorrow afternoon from his mission. It was Shizune, in the end, who turned the conversation, bringing up her last argument with her on and off again boyfriend, Genma.

Hinata, grateful for the distraction, silently willed her flushed cheeks to cool. Thinking of Kiba's return, after a departure that had haunted her dreams and made her knees weak in reminiscence, was something that Hinata was both anticipating and fretting over. He'd gone to get their marriage annulled, and after the changes that had happened in her life since his departure, she worried that their relationship would become awkward and strained. But if he admitted he wanted to kiss her again, well, Hinata knew she would willingly participate. At this moment, Kiba's return whispered of a previously unconsidered potential, one that perhaps was worth everything that had transpired the last two weeks, and that made her heart race most of all.

The group of women parted not an hour later, and after a brief lunch at home, Hinata spent the afternoon in the Hokage's office, receiving the initial briefing on her next mission, scheduled to depart in three days for the border of Cloud. It would be a short mission to retrieve documents from one of their contacts, but disguise and secrecy were important and Hinata would be assigned this time to the position of look out both during their travels and at the point of exchange. She reviewed the outline of their informal plan, memorizing it, then returned home to spend a long evening fighting nerves with meditation.

Shino departed the next morning, and she saw him off at the gate as the sun was rising. The heavily coated bug user lifted his hand in greeting as they met. "What's up? I don't usually see you when I leave this early for assignments."

"Shino-kun," Hinata greeted in reply, feeling a bit breathless though the walk from the Hyuuga compound was short. Agitation tended to do that to a person.

As if sensing her mood, she could feel him frown in return. "Is everything alright?"

"W-will you feel abandoned?" The question stumbled out before she could better compose it, and Hinata fought a wince as she attempted to gather her courage and rephrase. "I-I mean, on the team. If one of us wanted – I-I mean, if two of us started – ah, that is, i-if it should happen that-"

"If the two of you started dating?" During her splintered explanations, Shino had calmed into a wry stare as he folded his arms. Hinata could feel his amusement increase as she stuttered into silence and her cheeks flamed a bright red. "Hmm, well, I suppose you'd have to take it up with Kiba, but I don't mind if you want to monopolize Akamaru."

"T-that's not what I…! S-shino-kun! I-I meant with-"

A finger flicked her forehead in a rare but friendly gesture. "I know what you meant." A dramatic sigh emerged from the young man in front of her. "But I suppose this is what I get for not being able to keep secrets. I don't mind," he finished quietly. "Won't we always be friends?"

Slowly, a smile spread across Hinata's face in return. "Yes," she replied, echoing the sentiment he had told her only days ago but so far from all the changes that had happened recently that it felt like a lifetime.

A low "Hmm" and "Then what does it matter?" answered her. And then the quick suggestion, "I wouldn't mind if he suffered a bit before you told him, though. It would make up for a few of those ridiculous training sessions." But it was said with a quiet laugh, and so Hinata calmed. By the time she made her goodbyes, she was in higher spirits.

Walking back home, her fingertips idly skipping along the sides of the buildings she passed, Hinata almost missed them. In her light mood, it even took a moment to realize what awaited her.

But standing in her path, united in a way she would never have expected, Hinabi and Hana stood with solemn expressions as they watched her approach.

The village clock tower rang out six times as Hinata slowly came to a stop. The Hyuuga and the Inuzuka had found her.

_Keep going_

_until your feet won't take you further_

_and then perhaps_

_love will carry you._

"You married my brother," Hana's quiet announcement cut through the silence that surrounded their table in the partially secluded corner of the tea shop.

Hinata sat staring at the wood of the countertop in front of her. She'd followed the two women here at their suggestion. This was not how she pictured the confrontation between families that she and Kiba had been so determined to avoid. Hana, the most soft-spoken and kindest of Kiba's relatives, was not the one Hinata would have assumed would lead the attack. Hinabi was usually aloof as well, not one to get involved with family politics. The pair of them together, two highly specialized kunoichi with differing interests and infrequent reasons to interact, would turn heads across the village just from the oddity.

Her sister, sitting beside her, had explained it in only five words as they met her in the street. "I found your marriage scroll." It stung more than a little that Hinabi had been going through her things behind her back, and Hinata remembered with bitter knowledge that day she had seen movement in the window of her room when there should have been none. But the longer rationale given in the shadows of a newly opened restaurant brought motivations to light even if Hinata did not fully appreciate them. Just like Neji, Hinabi, too, had been approached by one of her friends in regards to Hinata's upset over her arranged marriage. Hinata had no need to ask, she knew it had been Kiba. Shino's words of the 'lecture' the most impulsive member of their old team had given her sister came rushing back, as well as Neji's grumbles. A coincidence in his words or perhaps Hinata's own morose state that she'd interrupted not two evenings prior had made her sister investigate, and she'd found the scroll stored carelessly inside that wooden box.

"I hadn't thought it my place to say anything," Hinabi admitted with a mild quirk of her eyebrows, "but when I heard later that you hadn't announced it to the clan elders I thought perhaps there were also problems with the Inuzuka. Of all their members, I felt Inuzuka Hana the most reasonable."

Hinata glanced up to see Hana nodding in agreement, her face not upset but rather almost supportive. "I don't know why Kiba thought he couldn't tell me, but I'll always stand beside my brother. Our mother may take a big of arguing to bring around, but she's not so fierce as she makes out. Her bark is far worse than her bite. She will learn to love you as family."

The guilt struck like a hammer in the place in her heart where only anxiety had been fretting until that moment. She could see it now, clearly displayed in both the quiet expressions turned towards her. This wasn't the enemy, the grim, impersonal punishers she had feared. This was Kiba's family, this was her family.

They ultimately wanted her, wanted both Kiba and she, to be happy.

And, Hinata knew in that moment as she took a deep breath, she was going to tell them the truth. Because they weren't the clan elders and they weren't a judgmental jury, these were two women who cared and she knew they should hear it now from someone who cared about them, too, instead of from the Hokage or cruel gossip in the future.

"W-we're no longer married."

Hana frowned in confusion. Hinabi just blinked. "I… I don't understand," the former stated.

"K-Kiba-kun has gone to the village of Sand to obtain the annulment," Hinata said as clearly as she could manage, gaining courage as no interruptions or outcries were made. "I…w-we married by mistake."

Now the elder Inuzuka let out a short, incredulous laugh. "In the temple where our clan has married for the past five generations? Our mother blamed the priest after she left her husband. Kiba knew that place well, I doubt it was a mistake."

Had he? Hinata vaguely remembered that the priest had certainly seemed to know _him_. But she continued with her argument, if in perhaps a softer voice. "We had been drinking alcohol that evening."

Konoha's resident veterinarian shook her head. "You have to know that Kiba has lo-"

"Please," the Hyuuga heir interrupted, and Hinabi turned to her sharply as she finally spoke with the strong conviction that had defined her announcement to her clan. "I want to ask Kiba-kun, myself."

She'd wanted to ask him the first morning she'd woken up a bride, but had been too afraid. She'd wanted to ask after his first kiss, but had been too unsure. She'd wanted to ask after the second, but had lost the moment of opportunity. She was determined to find a way to do it today. It had taken her almost two weeks but now she was sure only one person had the answer. Why had Kiba married her? Only he knew.

The two kunoichi with her, Hinabi and Hana, exchanged a glance, full of growing, unspoken understanding. In the end, the topic was left at that as they finished their tea. Before stepping fully out of the building, Hana surprised Hinata by pulling her into a quick hug and whispering in her ear. "The Inuzuka would be proud to have you. Don't doubt it."

A slight smile, a wave, and then the two Hyuuga sisters were left to return home by themselves. The trip was quiet, Hinabi's natural reticence and Hinata's lingering offense at her sister invading her room preserving the silence. But at before the large wooden gate, the older sister finally spoke up. "Please don't do that again, Hinabi."

The young woman beside Hinata shrugged with one arm, but instead of acquiescing, she said simply. "You've already got your revenge." Even under question, she only expounded to, "There have been three inquiries in the last two days regarding what _I'm_ doing to ensure the success of the next generation of the Hyuuga clan."

_Ah_, Hinata thought, and realized that her comments to the clan, while they relieved her of the pressure of an immediate marriage, must have pushed some of that interest onto her sister and Neji as well. Kiba would have laughed. Hinata had the good grace to blush at the realization.

Hinabi, watching her, smiled just slightly. "Our father has told me that dogs make good companions," she commented in an almost offhand manner as she pushed the door open and walked ahead. "Much more loyal than cats or birds. They make good shinobi, too."

_Waiting is a princess's duty._

_But in this country_

_didn't they teach you_

_to fight for what you wanted?_

The afternoon sun finally cleared a lingering late spring cloud as Hinata waited near the entrance gates to Konoha for the second time that day. A surprise squall had kept her inside until she was nearly late, but even if she would have needed an umbrella, she would not have missed this. Perched demurely on the damp, ancient stone wall that rimmed the old shinobi supply shop, Hinata had an excellent view of the people passing in and out of the village, and because of this she spotted the shinobi she had been watching for nearly a minute before he glanced up and found her by chance.

And in all the time he had given her, eleven days, twelve years, forever, this minute, Hinata had found everything she needed. She was halfway to him when his gaze met hers, and she didn't falter a step as he helped close that distance.

"Hey," Kiba greeted as they came to a stop, his team dispersing behind him to clean up before they would meet with the Hokage. The grin that covered his face was automatic and only faltered slightly as he carefully removed a small scroll, tied with a ribbon and a small bell, from a pouch at his waist. Its weight felt disproportionate as he placed it in her hand and explained. "The annulment. Gaara recommended we file it quietly with the Hokage in a few weeks."

Hinata nodded as she placed it safely in an inner pocket of her coat. She'd noticed during the exchange that he'd been careful to avoid touching her, and wondered if this comprised the promise he'd made her before spinning her world around four days ago. As she'd agreed to the result before his terms had been given, Hinata had no intention of holding him to it.

Instead she glanced down to where Akamaru leaned against Kiba's leg and smiled. A loyal companion indeed. But she wasn't here to ask the silent member of their team questions today. Looking back up, she met the clear black eyes she had learned to trust so long ago. "Kiba-kun," she asked quietly, "why did you marry me?"

She remembered a bit of it. He'd been angry with Sai, he'd been careful to ask her several times, they'd both been drunk. But she didn't want those answers any more. She'd given them to herself often enough to know they weren't really what she needed. And she'd noticed, of all the people she'd spoken with, of all the people who knew what had happened, not a single person had asked why Kiba had decided to marry her. It made her wonder at her own lack of self-awareness. It made her heart thump to guess at what had made everyone else so certain. It made her _want_ to know the real answer as much as she needed it.

Standing with her at the side of the entrance square, Kiba looked hesitant as he scratched at his chin but replied anyway. "Don't worry about it. We managed to get rid of-"

"Kiba," Hinata interrupted, and trembled to herself with the small thrill of the intimate lack of suffix even as his gaze snapped to hers with a new focus. The swift breath she took barely fortified her, but she continued anyway, almost inversely enjoying this side of herself, the Hinata who could be nervous but still determined. "I-I turned down the arranged marriages. A-all of them."

An almost comically slack jaw met her statement for an instant, before a loud whoop escaped him. Curious stares watched as swift hands clutched her waist and swung her around, making her nearly as dizzy as his exulting grin, until he remembered himself and hastily set her back down. Akamaru, who had barely dodged, exhaled a soft wuff and settled to the ground. But as Kiba quieted himself into composure, his smile refused to shrink. "I knew you could do it," he confided easily, bright teeth on full display. "I bet they'll think twice if they ever dare to try it again."

Hinata was smiling back, infected by his good cheer. "A-and I confessed to Naruto-kun." Before he could force congratulations through his now frozen expression, she continued, "I was rejected."

She could see him still and carefully study her face before replying in a cautious tone. "I'm sorry. If you want, I'll kick his ass."

The smile she still wore, while smaller, quirked a little at this. "I'm not sorry. Please don't." Tilting her head slightly, her long hair sliding forward in dark ribbons but never again to conceal her face, she explained, "I-I needed to hear it. I was just scared to before."

His hand lingered at her cheek then her shoulder before he withdrew it, and she watched the unwilling hesitation with rueful fascination before returning her gaze to his face. Kiba's expression was still remorseful, but also empathetic. "Needing and wanting aren't the same thing."

That was a truth she could agree with, but Hinata also knew that those two things could coincide, because at this moment she needed to hear her answer as much as she wanted it. And if she could convince him – "A-and I spoke to Hana-san. And Shino-kun. A-and Kurenai-sensei." – then maybe – "And I knew I should have asked you." – he would answer the question as she had posed it – "W-why did you marry me, Kiba?"

"I…"

There had been moments in her youth when Hinata had been sure that Kiba wasn't afraid of anything. He'd always been the first on their team to jump into new problems, whether appropriate or not. He'd laughed at things that had made her want to hide and joked about people who could terrify her with a glance. It had taken months to see him worry, and it had been several more after that to realize that the things that frightened him didn't involve being punished or getting hurt, but instead the loss of his teammates: Akamaru, Shino, and herself. Hinata watched him now struggle with that same fear, that when he answered he would lose her, would lose even the friendship he held so dear, and she knew the moment when he decided to be brave and risk it, just as she had.

"I love you," Kiba admitted, letting out a short huff of air as he stared up at the sky above them in a picture of hard-fought surrender. "I have for a long time, and probably will for a long time. I… I wanted to marry you. No matter what Sai said, no matter if I had guessed that it wouldn't work out, I still wanted to," he finally declared, quietly but firmly, glancing back down to meet her gaze. What he saw there, however, must have surprised him, because he lost the flow of conversation. "And…"

"And?" Hinata finally prompted softly.

The corner of his mouth tipped up, small but noticeable, as he shrugged. The reckless streak that had defined his life was breaching again as he'd tossed his last caution to the wind. "And I'd do it again."

An answering smile was fighting to emerge in her expression as well. But there was one more thing she wanted to hear, and if she lost her nerve now she wasn't sure she'd find it again anytime soon enough to suit her. "D-do you want to k-kiss me again?"

Kiba looked absolutely floored at her words, and this time a nervous laugh did escape her control. But the feral light that swiftly entered his eyes chased away her humor. By the time his pack hit the still slightly wet ground with a thud, she was already reaching one hand up to the side of his face, but that was okay because Kiba had always been quick to catch up.

In the end he met her halfway, and as they stood there - her arms around his neck and his hands possessively clutching her waist, melting into each other, in view of anyone who cared to look - lightning engulfed her heart.

_Drink up, drink deep,_

_drink long, drink three,_

_and don't let go._

_Don't ever let go._

Cool water streamed over her hands, tinged with the chill of the oncoming storm, but Hinata paid it no mind, watching instead as Kiba swiftly scooped out another dipperful and doused his own hands. She couldn't squash the smile that stretched over her face as he hesitated for a moment before bathing their fingers again. "Gotta make sure this time," he muttered to himself in fierce concentration. As she was looking forward to an ending that would endure longer than two weeks, Hinata agreed.

"Are you going to wash forever?" a mild but not quite polite voice called from the head of the stairs.

Kiba jumped in surprise and dropped the bamboo dipper halfway on its second trip to his own hands. "Damn it!" he exclaimed as he turned, nerves dramatically increasing the volume of his bark. At his feet, Akamaru stepped forward to place two paws into the resulting puddle.

Watching them from the rise, the elderly priest took in the scene with raised eyebrows until he recognized the young couple who'd visited his temple. His expression considerably darkened after that. "Inuzuka. What are you doing here?"

A calloused hand clutched Hinata's as Kiba stepped forward. "We've come to get married!" he proclaimed as they began mounting the stairs at a swift pace.

The priest grew more cross as he backed up a step. Under the darkened skies his silver hair showed considerably more gray than it had the last time they had seen him. "What? That's ridiculous! I refuse to contribute to your foolishness again!"

Akamaru gave a short bark as he ran to join them in the stone courtyard. Kiba was beginning to look frustrated. "My family always marries here. I don't want to start out with Hinata with half measures!"

But the old man just waved a finger back at them accusingly. "You tricked me the first time with your desperate declarations, Inuzuka! I'll not help you steal the princess for a second time!"

The hand wrapped around hers tightened. "Who's stealing?"

"_You_, you insolent pup!"

"I-I'm here willingly," Hinata finally interjected, as the two men before her almost bristled in animosity. Akamaru stood at the door to the temple, as if the decision had already been made. And for Hinata, that was true.

Three hours ago she'd been in Konoha, sitting on an old wooden bench at the edge of the village, Kiba's head resting in her lap after their picnic. They'd been dating for nearly fifteen months by now, and Hinata had slowly grown less embarrassed at her boyfriend's public affection – that early impulsive, non-thinking kiss notwithstanding. But she had always enjoyed sitting there relaxing with him, Akamaru curled up at their feet, no matter if people had seen them. Kiba had been smiling up at her with a lazy expression as he dozed, her fingers idly brushing at his hairline.

Sitting in that late summer heat, she'd felt the truth she'd known for months, the truth she'd only managed to tell him in pieces, but she whispered it then in a contented admission without thinking twice. "I'm happy I fell in love with you." And she was. After the quiet disappointment of Naruto's refusal she hadn't been sure it would be possible to love anyone romantically again, an irrational fear that had only lasted briefly but the impression of which lingered. She'd been scared, too, to promise too much to Kiba when both Ino and Sakura extolled the benefits of short, whirlwind relationships after a "big breakup." But while Kiba had been cautious as well, neither of them had wavered. They'd grown into happiness like procrastinating children. And the reward had been worth the effort.

She'd glanced down to find Kiba's eyes open and his expression studiously calm. The suggestion was matter-of-fact. "Then marry me."

It had taken only a moment of thought to reply. "Alright."

"Now?" he'd asked immediately back, a cheeky, relieved grin spreading across his face. By his tone she knew he was joking, but considering it as he simultaneously took one of her hands and began rummaging through his thigh pouch, she could think of few better options. The uproar of the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka may be more muted now with their longstanding relationship well known, but she did not fool herself into thinking it wouldn't be there at all. And a fait accompli didn't sound so terrible. Looking down at Kiba, who was carefully sliding something on to her finger, she couldn't think of a single reason to wait.

"A-alright," Hinata repeated.

His forehead barely missed her face as he shot up. "What?" the shinobi asked, obviously startled. Unbalanced by the motion, he swiftly framed his arms around her, catching himself on the back of the bench seat. Shifting her own hand, Hinata stared down at the simple golden band that wrapped around the perfect finger. A small diamond was embedded in an embossed paw print. She smiled softly as a warm mouth leaned forward to press against her ear. "You want to get married now?" A slightly more composed voice asked, good humor pervading the tone as it murmured to her.

"W-why not?" she bravely asked back.

With a quick, firm kiss, Kiba had stood and pulled her up as well. "I have no idea. Guess we'd better do it then." He gazed at her with an almost silly look of happiness before leaning down and giving the bench a smart rap with his knuckles. Akamaru sat up and peered at them from over the back. "Come on. We're going on a trip," Kiba announced simply, leading Hinata behind him as they rushed out of the village.

And now, here, at the temple where for Hinata her life had changed in a single night, they stood arguing with the priest, Itou, for the right to change it again. The old man was staring at her as if she were crazy. "I-I want to get married," she clarified, hoping to change his mind.

"I already married you," the priest told her with a great deal of exasperation. "What made that invalid?"

Hinata flushed at his words and glanced down, but Kiba only grimaced before answering. Her hand remained clutched in his as he stated, "It… wasn't the right time. But we're certain now. We want to get married."

"Oh?" Itou asked back incredulously, eyebrows nearer his receding hairline once again. He stared at them for a long time, even after Hinata had gathered her resolution and glanced back up before shifting closer to her second-time fiancé.

Finally, he threw his hands into the air with an impatient sigh. "Understand this, Inuzuka," the priest warned almost petulantly, waving a finger under Kiba's nose. "There's no way in hell I'm marrying you a third time, so you'd better not mess this up again." With a surrendering tsk, Itou turned away. "Midori! Fetch the sake for the San San Kudo!"

After watching him retreat inside, Kiba turned a triumphant smile towards her. They turned to follow Akamaru into a side hall of the temple and were quickly joined by a polite, familiar miko, who lit the lamps in the room and filled three increasingly smaller cups with sake. As a more resigned and patient Itou recited the ceremony and directed them to drink, Hinata watched the growing shadows on the wall, thinking not of what her family's, both old and new, reaction would be, nor of the surprise her sudden marriage would be to her friends, but instead of the things she had last heard in this room when the wind from the holes behind her and the fire from the candle before her prophesied her future. The three cups passed through her hands in sequence as she listened to them repeat their refrain, and the storm broke upon them and clanged into the ancient bell outside in raucous chorus.

_Don't let go,_ they told her, full of compelling wisdom. _Don't ever let go._

And looking at Kiba, who had just kissed her thoroughly, against tradition and to the endless frustration of the priest, Hinata knew she never would.


End file.
